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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ELEMENTS 



^ 



Scientific and Practical 



AGRICULTURE. 



ADAPTED TO THE EEQUIEEMEHTS OF SCHOOLS AND 
THE AGRICULTUKAL PUBLIC. 



BY—— 1/^ 

G-EOK/G-E C3-EnyLDyLELXj IMIcIKI^"^, 
2,. ' Late Examiner of Fublic Schools, Allegany County, Md, 



fl 




BALTIMORE, MD.: 

The Baltimore Publishing Company, Peinters, 

Ko. lOG E. Baltimore Street. 



1887. 



"The fundamental principles of plant-groidh and tillage, 
if not occupying more tlian an hour a iceeJc in the school, would 
exert a heneficial and pou-ei-ful educational influence, and add 
untold riches to the tvealth of our people.''^ 

— Dr. F. M. IIexameu. 



"But it is not the mere practiced utility of these agricidtural 
truths which is of importance; their influence upon mental cul- 
ture is most heneficicd, and the new vieivs acquired by the 
knowledge of them enable the mind to recognize in the phenomena 
of nature pn'oofs of an infinite wisdom, for the unfathomable 
'profundity of ivhich, language has no expression.'^ 

^-BaRON LlEBIGi 



PREFACE. 



In the following treatise it has been the aim of the author to 
render the various investigations as simple, natural, and easily- 
understood as possible, and to establish and illustrate them in 
a plain and familiar manner, without descending to mere 
puerility. He trusts the methods by which he establishes 
the processes causing the first soil on the face of the earth, the 
formation of the secondary rocks, and succeeding formations, 
and the modes he has employed in explaining the theory and 
practice of farm cultivation, as well as the causes of the different 
kinds of soils, etc., will divest those subjects of much of the 
taystcry that has long enveloped them. 

In like manner, using freely what has been done by previous 
writers, he has endeavored to simplify those elementary prin-- 
ciples which underlie the Various operations of practical and 
profitable husbandry. 

Much absolute novelty, except in the mode of exposition) 
cannot now be expected in a work on the Elements of Scientific 
and Practical Agriculture. Some of the matter, however) the 
author thinks, is entirely new, while others are for the first time 
systematically arranged, clearly developed, and fully explained 
in familiar language. 

With regard to the useful application of the science of agri- 
culture to practical farming, there is no difference of opinion 
among men of sound judgment, and it is only with that subject 
this elementary work has any concern. 

The use of technical terras has been avoided as much as 
possible. The derivation and meaning of a few words, whicli 
may not be familiar to all, liave been given at the end of the 



vi PREFACEl. 

book for the convenience of those who may not have a dictionary 
at hand. 

Questions have also been added, which arc merely suggestive, 
Wlien the work is used for a text-book, the teacher should bo 
particular to bring out the salient points of each subject, and 
encourage the pupil to amplify and illustrate his statements 
in his own words, bearing in mind that the most interesting 
subject becomes dry and irksome if not thoroughly understood. 

It may be assumed as self-evident that agricultural instruc- 
tion, to be a national benefit, must be accessible to the people, 
especially the cultivators of the soil. It may also be assumed 
that this end can be best attained through the public schools, 
by )neans of a suitable text-book. With this end in View, this 
work is given to the public. How successful the author has 
been in supplying the need, the people must judge. 

The desire of the author has been to supply a useful, reliable, 
and compi-ehensive book at as moderate a price aS possible; 
and he believes lie has given in this work a very large amount 
of matter in proportion to its size. 

Cumberland, Md., February, 1887. 



CONTENTS 



FIBST DIVISION. 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

T. The Chief Object of Agriculture, ... 11 

IT. The Growth of Plants, 13 

III. The Germination of Seeds, .... 15 

IV. How Plants Take Their Food, ... 17 
V. Substances Found in Plants, .... 18 



SECOND DIVISION. 



VT. The Organic Coznpounds, .... 19 

VII. The Inorganic Substances, 20 

VIII. Plant Food, 22 

IX. How Plants can be Grown Without Soil, . . 24 

X. How Plants Feed, ...... 27 

XL The Soil and Its Characters, .... 28 

XII. Geological Influences on National Character, . 31 

XIII. The History of the Soil, 33 

XIV. Analyses of Primitive Rocks, .... 35 
XV. Agencies Wliicli Reduce Rock to Soil, . . 30 

XVI. The Pulverizing of Rock in Which There is 

No Iron, ....... 38 

XVII. Reduction of Rock to Soil Condition, . . 40 

XVIII. Physical Composition of the Soil, ... 43 



THIRD DIVISION. 



XIX. Capillary Attraction, 45 

XX. Physical Condition of Soils 47 



Yin 



COI^TEOTS. 



FOURTH DIVISION. 



CHAPTER. 

XXI. Chemical Analyses of Soils, . 

XXII. Agricultural Chemistry, .... 

XXIII. The Beneficial Effects of Drainage, 

XXIV. The Beneficial Effects of Drainage, . 
XXV. Objections to Drainage, .... 

XXVI. Organic Constituents, .... 

XXVII. How to Remedy Some Bad Characters of Soils 

XXVIII. Analyses of Different Kinds of Soils, 

XXIX. The Great Value of the Double Silicates, . 

3iXX., The Beneficial Effects of Tillage, . 

XXXI.' The ^York of the Plow, .... 

XXXII. Lime Pans, and Other Field Pans, 

XXXIII. Agricultural Implements, .... 

XXXIV. Preparations for Seeding, 



PAGE. 

48 
49 
52 
53 
58 
G2 
G4 
G6 
G8 
70 
73 
74 
7G 
77 



FIFTH DIVISION. 



XXXV. Elements of the Soil, 

XXXVI. The Organic Elements, 

XXXVII. The Metallic Elements, 

XXXVIII. Binary Compounds, 

XXXIX. The Atmosphere, . 



79 
81 
82 

83 
85 



SIXTH DIVISION. 



XL. Tlie Dissolution of Plants and Animals, . 87 

XLI. . The Exhaustion of the Soil, ... 89 

XLII. Substances Used by Vegetables, ... 91 
XLIII. Tlie Quantity of Substances Used l)y Differeut 

Plants, 93 

XLIV. Remedies for Exhaustion, .... 94 

XLV. Fallow Crops, 97 

XLVI. Rotation of Crops, 98 



CONTENTS. 



IX 



SEVENTH DIVISION. 



CHAPTER. 

XLVII. The Great Remedy for Exhaustion, 

XLVIII. Farm-yard Manure, . 

XLIX. How to Increase the Fertilizing 

Manure, . . • • • 

L. Experiments With Farm-yard Manure 

LI. Compost Heaps, , . . • 

LII. Uses of Calcareous Manures, . 

LIII. Summary of the Virtues of Lime, 

LIV. Artificial Manures— Guano, Bone, 

LV. Phosphatic Manures, . . . • 

LVI. Nitrogenous Manures, . 



PAGE. 

. 100 
103 



Power of 



104 
107 
108 
110 
112 
114 
116 
118 



EIGHTH DIVISION. 



LVII. Agricultural Plants, 

LVIII. The Germination of Seeds— Wheat, . 

LIX. The Germination of Seeds— Pea, Turnip, 

LX. The Uses of the Roots of Plants, &c., 

LXI. The Uses of the Stems and Leaves, 

LXII. The Duties of the Flower in Plant Economy, 

LXIII. Wheat, Pea, and Clover Flowers, . 

LXIV. The Attractiveness of Flowers, . 



121 
122 
125 
126 
128 
130 
132 
133 



NINTH DIVISION. 



LXV. The Utilization of Agricultural Plants, 

LXVI. Botanical Order of Agricultural Plants, 

LXVII. Wheat and Corn Crops, .... 

LXVIII. Barley, Oat, and Rye Crops, 

LXIX. The Hay Crop, 

LXX. Clover Hay— Sheltering of Young Plants, 



135 

137 
140 
141 
144 
146 



CONTENTS. 



TENTH DIVISION. 



CHAPTER. 

LXXI. Implements for Harvesting Crops, 

LXXII.' The Reaping and Binding Macliino, 

LXXIII. Points of Economy of a Machine, . 



1>A0E. 

. 148 

151 

. 153 



f:LEyENTIl DIVISION. 



LXXIV. Pests of the Farm, 154 

LXXV. Insect Pests, 156 

LXXVI. Miscellancious Information, .... 159 

Questions— First, Second, and Third Divisions, . . 165-6 

Third, Fourth, and Fiftli Divisions, . 166-7 

Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Divisions, 167-9 

Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh 

Divisions, 169-70 

" Eleventli Division, 170 

Vocabulary, 173-9 



ELEI^EISTTS 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICDLTDRE. 



CHAPTER I. 



CHIEF OBJECT OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. 

The various operations employed in cultivating 
the land, so as to make it yield vegetable food abun- 
dantly, is called Agriculture. The great object of 
agriculture is to produce from a given space the 
greatest quantity of certain kinds of vegetation, 
with a due regard to the quality of the produce, at 
the lowest cost, without exhausting the soil. 

The sciences of Chemistry, Botany, and Geology 
are of great value and importance to the cultivator of 
the soil, as they furnish the means of knowing the 
different classes of agricultural plants, how they feed, 
the quantities of the different substances each kind of 
plant requires, from Avhence they obtain their food, 
from whence the soil came in which they grow, and 
how the farmer can best aid the plant in getting an 
ample supply of food. 

We propose to call to our aid only so much of these 
sciences as may be deemed necessary for the correct 
understanding of the growth of plants, the tillage 
of the soil, and the reasons for the practice of 
intelligent farmers. . . , 



12 ELEMENTS OF 

Metaphysics and the fine arts were carefully stiidied 
by the Greeks and Eomans, in -which they reached a 
high standard of perfection; but the natural sciences, 
the offspring of the inductive system, Avere ignored by 
them. 

Until 1820 (Sir Humphrey 'i\i\\) and 1840 (Baron 
Liebig) agriculture had no scientific basis; it was 
a mere experimental art. Eflecls were ascertained, 
but causes were unknown. Happily, chemical analysis 
and philosophic sagacity at last shed light on the sub- 
ject. To science we owe most of the comforts of life — ■ 
such as health, clothing, literature, and locomotion. 
There is no good reason why the production of our 
greatest necessity — food — should be excluded from 
its influence. 

Agricultural labor, beyond any doubt, develops man's 
physique; but it has also been said that it develops the 
muscles at the expense of the brain. Under the 
scientific and practical system of farming, no such 
charge can be maintained; because both brain and 
muscle are stimulated to activity by the multi- 
plicity of operations, and the varied intellectual 
inquiries necessary to bring the cultivation of the soil 
and the growing of crops to a successful issue. Each 
is thus accorded fair play, and both attain a well 
developed proportion. 

The Bible says: "The sleep of a laboring man is 
sweet." If the farmer could but realize how greatly 
blessed he is in this particular, by the character of his 
labor and surroundings, he would not desire to exchange 
places wdth the nerve-strained sons of commerce, or 
the followers of the phantom, Dives — the merchant 
princes of the cities, or the brokers of Wall street. No 
one leads a life more in harmony with the divine com- 
mand given to our first parents than the tiller of. the 



SCIENTIFIC AND PilACTICAL AGEICULTUKE. 13 

soil; and no one can follow a more peaceful, enjoy- 
able, and healthful pursuit, or has a freer and fuller 
opportunity for the profitable exercise of intelligence 
and contemplation of the wonderful goodness of God. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE GROWTH OF PLANTS. 

Plants can only grow when they have a proper 
supply of the materials they need for building up 
their various parts; they, like animated beings, require 
food ; and although in a wild state, they can obtain all 
the nourishment they require from the air, and from the 
soil in which they grow; yet, when we produce them in 
particular places, and in great quantities, for 
the use of man, we must take great care that they be 
supplied with food proper for them, and sufficient in 
quantity. We shall endeavor, in this work, to explain 
clearly the principles which regulate the supply 
of food to the plant, and the way by which tlie farmer 
is able to assist the plant in obtaining it. 

The prime object of agriculture, then, is to grow 
and multiply plants ; therefore, it will be necessary 
for us to inquire, at the outset, what plants are com- 
posed of, and how they grow. 

It will be observed that all agricultural plants, such 
as wheat, clover, beets, potatoes, etc., consist of two 
principal parts. The root, which is pale colored, 
growing downward into the soil, and irregularly 
branched; the stem, or top, which is generally green, 
grows up into the air, sending out branches in a more 
regular manner, and produces leaves, flowers, and fruit. 
Some plants are grown by the farmer for their roots, 



14 ELEMENTS OF 

as turnips; others for their leaves and stems, as 
cloYer and grass ; and others for their fruit and seeds, 
as corn, wheat, beans, and peas. The farmer, therefore, 
talks of root crops, green crops, grain crops, and fruit 
crops. 

Some roots are thick, and grow straight downwards, 
sending off slender branching fibres, as carrots and beets; 
others are entirely fibrous, as the grasses. The uses of 
the roots are to take in nourishment, and fix the 
l)lant in the soil. Roots are sometimes much longer 
than the stems. The roots of wheat have been traced 
to a depth of seven feet, and those of corn have been 
known to extend a distance of fifteen feet from the 
stem. The ends of the root-fibers are fine and deli- 
cate, and covered with minute hairs, into and through 
which the nourishment of the plant enters, and 
finds its way up into the stem. 

The stem generally grows upward into the air; but 
in a few the stem lies on the surface, and in others it 
runs partly underground. The potato is, in reality, a 
thickened part of an underground stem, the eyes of 
which are simply buds. The stem is sometimes hollow, 
as in wheat, and is always made up of bundles of long 
cells and vessels, through which water and other 
substances, taken in from the soil by the roots, pass 
up into the leaves. 

The most important organs connected with the life 
and growth of all plants are their leaves. A leaf is 
a thin layer of minute cells spread out to the air, 
strengthened with ribs or veins, made up of stouter 
cells or vessels, and covered on both sides with a fine 
membrane, nearly transparent. In these membranes 
are minute openings, called pores, through which the 
plant takes in air and gives off water and gases. 

When a plant is full grown, flowers appear upon its 
branches. Some plants, as the carrot and turnip, take 



SCIENTIFIC AKD PEACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 15 

two years to produce their flowers. The first year 
the root grows thick and fleshy, the tops bearing only 
leaves. The second year the plant pushes forth a 
strong stem; it is then said to have "run to seed." 
The store of nourishment laid up in the fleshy root, 
during its first year's growth, is consumed in producing 
the flowering stem, fruit, and seed, after which the 
root will be found stringy and spongy, and useless 
for food. 

All agricultural plants put forth flowers, but 
some are very small and dull colored. When the out- 
side of the flower falls off", the middle part grows into 
fruit, which contains the seed. A grain of wheat is 
properly a fruit containing one seed; a bean-pod is a 
fruit containing several seeds. 



CHAPTER III. 



SEEDS AND THEIR GEEMINATION. 

A SEED contains the young plant and sufBcient 
nourishment, usually consisting of starch or oil, to 
support the young plant until it is able to support 
itself. The embryo consists of a plumule, or young 
bud, from which the stem will grow up into the air; 
a radicle, or young root, from which the main root 
will grow down into the soil; and one and sometimes 
two seed-leaves, which push up above the soil and 
become the first green leaves of the plant. 

Three things arc necessary to enable a seed to begin to 
grow: (1) Moisture, which is absorbed by the seed, 
causing it to enlarge and burst its hard outside case; 
(2) Warmth, of which some require much more than 
others in the first stage of germination; and (3) Air, 



16 ELEMENTS OF 

from Avhich tlie seed derives oxygen and carbonic acid 
gas. When a seed, therefore, is kept moist and warm in 
the air, it will begin to grow, no matter whether it be 
placed in the soil or not; but, as it lias to obtain most 
of its food from the soil as soon as its own store is 
exhausted, it is best to sow it in the soil at once, 
being particular to see that it can obtain enough 
moisture, warmth, and air. The seed then becomes 
swollen, the young bud enlarges and bursts through 
the outer skin, the plumule rises into the air, carrying 
with it the seed-leaf or leaves, or opening out its young 
green leaves to the sunlight while the radicle descends 
into the soil, sending off minute branching fibers. The 
oxygen of the air acts upon the stored-up food in such 
a way that the oil and starch are converted into a kind 
of sugar. 

That solid substances can be dissolved in 
water, is difficult for the learner to realize; yet we see 
instances of it every day in the case of easily dissolved 
substances, as sugar and salt. A lump of sugar put 
into a glass of water soon disappears ; still we know it is 
there, and its presence is easily detected by the taste. 
Most of the sparkling spring water which we drink has 
lime, magnesia, iron, and other substances in it; 
yet it looks clear and bright to the eye. All the sub- 
stances which constitute the food of plants must be 
dissolved in water, in this clear and complete 
manner, before they can be taken up by the root- 
lets of plants. 



SCIEifTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGEICULTUKE. 17 



CHAPTER IV. 



ROOTS OF PLAKTS AND HOW THEY TAKE IN FOOD. 

If you loosen the earth around and under the root of 
any young plant, and carefully pull it up, wash off the 
soil gently in a pan of water, and then examine the 
root, you will observe it to consist of a number of 
wMtisll fibers, growing finer and whiter towards the 
tips. These fibers, put under a strong magnifying 
glass, will be seen to be hollow tubes, closed at 
the ends, and having very thin walls. It is through 
the delicate skin of these hairs on the root-fibers that 
the plant absorbs the clear water in which its food is 
dissolved. As the roots grow older and thicker, they 
lose their hairs, and their outermost layer becomes hard 
and forms a rind or bark, while the taking in of the 
water containing the food is carried on by the hairs 
and cells, upon newer fibers, branching out and spread- 
ing v.'ider and deeper into the soil. 

In poor soils root-hairs are found to be more 
abundant than on fibers growing on good soil, 
because more eff'ort is required to be put forth by the 
plant in finding food from the thinly distributed 
nourishment than in good soil, where all the materials 
required are at hand in abundant supply. But the 
young student naturally asks : If no openings exist in 
these hair-fibers, how can the water get in? The 
following experiment will remove any doubt that may 
exist on this point: Take a small glass funnel and 
tie tightly over the mouth of it a piece cf bladder or 
very thin India rubber, such as is used for children's 



18 ELEMENTS OF 

balloons; now j)Oiir into it some water, in which sugar 
or salt is dissolved, and dip the covered end into a 
basin of clean water. After a time it Avill be found 
that the liquid in the tube has risen, and, on tasting 
the water in the basin, some of the sugar or salt will be 
found to have penetrated the membrane. Thus 
it is proved that fluids, separated ])y a membrane, are 
able to pass through and diffuse into one another, 
though there arc no holes to be found in the dividing 
membrane, even by the most powerful microscope. 



CHAPTER V. 



WHAT PLANTS AKE COMPOSED OF. 

We shall now examine into the composition of 
plants, and ascertain what becomes of the water and 
substances, held in solution, which they have drunk up 
or absorbed. In a green growing plant the most abun- 
dant substance is water. Fresh meadow grass contains 
from seventy-five to eighty-five per cent, of water, while 
in turnips more than ninety per cent, is found. There- 
fore, one hundred pounds of fresh grass, when made 
into hay, will weigh about twenty-five pounds; and, if 
completely dried in an oven, will weigh only about 
fifteen pounds. 

The water contained in the plant is not stationary, 
but is passing through the plant, from cell to cell, until 
it reaches the leaves, where, being spread out to tlie air, 
it is quickly evaporated through the minute openings, 
which we before explained as abounding in its covering 
membrane. A healthy medium sized cabbage has been 
found to evaporate nearly a pint of Avater in twelve 
hours; and it lias been calculated that an acre of 



SCIENTIFIC AI^D PRACTICAL AGRICULTURll. dS 

cabbages -will give out in the course of twelve hours, 
by evaporation, more than ten tuns of water. 

The frame-work of the plant, of which the walls 
of the cells are made, consists of a substance called 
cellulose, the most familiar form of which we see in 
paper or hornets' nests. We may consider, then, the 
plant to be constructed and built up of an infinite 
number of minute paper boxes, closed on all sides; and 
the water, with its contents, oozes through the sides of 
these boxes, from one to another, till it reaches the 
leaves; and on its way back from the leaves, each 
retains that portion of the nutriment which it needed 
and passes the rest on to its neighbors. 

Another very abundant substance is starch. This 
is in the form of minute grains, stored up in many of 
the small boxes or cells, which are often packed full of 
them. A potato consists almost entirely of cells packed 
and crowded full of starch granules. Starch can be 
very easily converted into sugar, and in many plants 
sugar is very plentiful, as in the sweet fruits, sugar 
cane, in the cells of the beet-root, and sap of the sugar 
maple. When barley is made into malt, the warmth 
and moisture cause the starch to be turned into sugar. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS. 

All the substances mentioned in the former chapter, 
namely, water, Cellulose, starch, sugar, and oil, 
are found by chemists to be composed of three ele- 
ments, or simple substances, viz., carbon, oxygen, 
and hydrogen. Water is composed of oxygen and 
hydrogen; cellulose, sugar, starch, and oil are each 



20 , JILEMENTS OF 

composed of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, and, in the 
plant, are often changed from the one to the other. 

There are two substances in the phint which must be 
specially mentioned, and which are made up of four 
elements, viz., carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and 
nitrogen. The first of tliese substances is called 
protoplasm, a kind of jelly-like material found in all 
living cells, which, under the microscope, is seen to 
turn round and round in its cell, and is really the 
life substance in the plant; and the second is called 
chlorophyll, or leaf-green, which is formed out of 
protoplasm by the action of sunlight, and is found in 
all the green parts of the plant. If a plant is kept 
from the light it turns yellow and then white. You 
have all witnessed this in the growths made by potatoes 
in the cellar, and the blanched stalks of celery, which 
is caused by earthing them up; because, in the absence 
of liglit, no leaf-green is formed. 

All the substances of the plant which we have been 
considering, whether formed of three elements or four, 
are called organic compounds, because they go to 
make up the principal part of all organized beings — 
that is, plants and animals having special mem.bers or 
organs. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE IXORGANIC SUBSTANCES. 

If avo take a plant and dry it, and then burn it, 
all the organic substances disappear and mingle with 
tlie air, again to be used by otlier plants; and the 
inorganic, or fixed substances, remain as ashes, which 
are, in reality, the mineral matters contained in the 
plant; and these, when analyzed, are found to consist 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 21 

of a number of compounds which are found in many 
minerals as well as in animals and plants. 

The following table shows the materials found in 
plants: 

ORGAKIC. IKORGANIC. 

Silica. 

Potash. 

Soda. 

Lime. 

Phosphoric Acid. 

Carbonic Acid. 

Sulphuric Acid. 

Magnesia. 

Oxide of Iron. 

Chlorine. 



NOX-NITROGENOUS. 



Carbon, Oxy- 
gen, Hydro- 
gen only 



Starch. 
Gum. 
Sugar. 

Cellulose (or woody fiber' 
_ Oil. 

NITROGENOUS. 



Carbon, Oxy- 
gen, Hydro- 
gen, and Ni- 



Albumen. 
Fibrine (gluten), 
trof'en I Casein (legumen). 

Most of these are the common names of substances with 
which you are familiar. 

Potash is so called because it was first obtained by 
burning plants in a pot, then leaching the ashes 
and evaporating the water. Iron oxide is the rust 
seen upon iron when exposed to the air. Silica is the 
substance which we see in white sand, flint, and 
quartz-crystals. Ammonia is so called from its having 
been obtained from the camel-yards near the Temple of 
Jupiter Ammon, where the worshipers of that idol 
had congregated for many years; it is also called harts- 
horn, because of its having been obtained from the 
horns of the deer. All the inorganic substances named 
above contain oxygen, except chlorine and ammo- 
nia. Chlorine, when liberated from its compound, is 
a yellow, choking gas, but in the plant it is combined 
with potash or soda; when combined with the latter, it 
is called chloride of sodium, known to every person 



Note.— Ammonia Is composed of Nitrogen and Hydrogen, and belongs 
to tbe organic elements. 



22 ELEMENTS OF 

as common salt. From the strong affinity which 
clilorinc has for water, if it be set free in a cellar 
which is damp and mouldy, it Avill destroy the mould 
and render the cellar sweet and healthful. If an 
earthen vessel, Avith about two pounds of common salt, 
be placed in a cellar, and an ounce of sulphuric acid 
poured over it, the chlorine will be set free from the 
soda and fill the cellar, Avliich should be tightly shut 
up for four or five hours. You must be careful not to 
breathe the gas, and to aerate the cellar thoroughly 
before entering it. A drink of water is the antidote 
to the effects caused by inhaling the gas. 

The acids named in the table, when found in the 
plant, are combined with minerals, and are what chem- 
ists call phosphates, sulphates, and carbonates. 
Silica, also, sometimes forms an alliance with minerals, 
and these compounds are called silicates. We have, 
therefore, phosphate of potash, phosphate of 
lime, a very important compound, which constitutes 
the chief value of bone as a fertilizer; also, we have the 
sulphate of potash, sulphate of magnesia 
(epsom salts), sulphate of lime (gypsum and plaster 
of paris), corbonate of soda, and carbonate of 
lime (marble and chalk). 



CHAPTER VIII. 



PLANT FOOD. 

We may now take up the subject of plant food. All 
these su])stanccs, found in ]ilants that have grown from 
very small seeds, must have been obtained by 
them from without; and, to enable them to grow and 
be thrifty, they must be in reach of these substances. 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 23 

As soon as plants have used up the noul-ishment 
provided for them in the seed, they require a supply 
of the following organic materials to build up 
their soft parts, viz. : Oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and 
nitrogen; and the inorganic materials, to build up their 
frame-work or skeleton, viz.: Potash, soda, magnesia, 
lime, iron, phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, silica, and 
chlorine. 

Full-sized, healthy plants have been grown to com- 
plete maturity, without any soil at all, by 
suspending them, with their roots dipping, into a- 
vessel of water in which has been dissolved a supply of 
all these articles of plant food. Some exceedingly 
interesting experiments have been made in growing 
plants artificially, with food specially prepared and 
dissolved in water. Some may be desirous of trying 
the experiment, and, as it will be instructive as well 
as interesting, we shall describe in the next chapter one 
of the best modes of procedure, which has been success- 
fully tested. 

It is of great importance to keep in mind the 
sources from which plants derive their food: 

First — Air. The air is mainly composed of two gases, 
nitrogen and oxygen, with a small portion of carbonic 
acid gas, which is itself a compound of oxygen and 
carbon, and still smaller quantities of ammonia and 
nitric acid; the former of which contains nitrogen and 
hydrogen, and the latter nitrogen and oxygen. Careful 
experiment has shown that none of the free nitrogen of 
the air is taken in by plants, and that, small as the 
carbonic acid is in the air, it is the source of almost all 
the carbon found in plants. The leaves absorb car- 
bonic acid from the air, and then, under the influence 
of sunlight upon the Icaf-grcen, the carbonic acid is 
separated into its elements (carbon and oxygen); the 



2i ELEMENTS OF 

carbon i^ retained by the i)l;uit, which uses it in 
forming cellulose, starch, sugar, and otlier substances; 
Avhile the oxygen is given out to the air. 

Oxygen is also, at times, absorbed from the air, 
esi^ecially when the jjlants are growing rapidly and 
coming into flower. The ammonia and nitric acid 
are washed down into the soil by the rains, and then 
taken in by the roots, supplying the plants with a 
small portion of nitrogen. 

Second — Water. Pure water is a combination of 
oxygen and hydrogen. When water is used by the 
plant, its duty is chiefly to convey other matters, Avhich 
it holds in solution, to the root; but some of it is 
divided up and used by the plant in forming the 
starch and other organic matters. Rain water is the 
purest natural water known, having nothing dissolved 
in it but what it has washed down out of the air; but, 
as soon as it enters the soil, it begins to dissolve the 
mineral matters there, and carries them to the roots of 
plants. 

Third — The soil. We have now seen what plants 
obtain from air and water; the rest of the nitrogen, 
and all the mineral or inorganic substances, must be 
obtained from the soil and brought to the roots clearly 
and completely dissolved in water. 



CHAPTER IX. 



EXPERIMENT WITH WATER CULTURE OF PLANTS. 

In order to make the experiment of growing a plant 
to perfect maturity, without being planted in the soil, 
take a wide-mouthed bottle, capable of holding one or 
two quarts. It must be fitted with a cork, and a hole 



6CIEKTIFI0 AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 25 

made in the centre of the cork, say half an inch in 
diameter, and an opening cut from it to the circum- 
ference, 60 tliat the phmt may be glided out and in 
easily when required. You will next cover the bottle 
with stout paper, and top or neck with black sealing 
wax. It is a most important matter that darkness 
be secured, for plants feed through the roots best in the 
dark, as well as to prevent any fungoid growth within 
the dining-room of the plant. 

We have next to see to the preparation of the bill of 
fare, and there are many of such bills. We shall select 
the following one, as suitable for the purpose, which 
has been successfully used by a celebrated English 
chemist: 

Take finely powdered burnt bone (three hundred 
grains), put in a glass flask with Avater (pint), and to 
it nitric acid is cautiously added, so as to dissolve the 
bone, the flask being heated. After this has been done, 
a solution of carbonate of potash is added to the 
hot liquor, until it becomes slightly turbid. This 
represents the only troublesome portion of the cooking 
arrangements, for it now only needs the three following 
bodies to be added*. Nitrate of potash, one hundred 
a-nd seventy grains; crystallized sulphate of magnesia, 
one hundred and seven grains; and chloride of potas- 
sium, forty-six grains, with water suflicient to make it 
up to a quart. 

We have thus prepared a very large supply of plant 
food; for although in its concentrated condition it 
only represents a quart, yet it will really give about 
ten gallons when properly diluted. When we are going 
to use the food for..plants, we take about two table- 
spoonsful, and add it to a quart of distilled water, 
and mix in with it one drop of a strong solution of 
perchloride of iron. This weak and delicate liquid 



26 ELEMENTS OF 

now represents a very valuable plant food, and in this 
condition it is ready for use. 

The seed having been sprouted in sand, the young 
plant is washed and then suspended in the hole of the 
cork, by the aid of cotton, wool, or other similar soft 
substance, with its roots reaching down to ilio water 
and its leaf in the air. Until a green leaf appears, 
clean water is supplied; but on the appearance of 
the green leaf, the cork and plant are removed from the 
bottle, the water is poured away, and the bottle filled 
with the properly diluted food. 

When the growth of the plant is slow, there need not 
be any fresh supply of food for fully fourteen days; 
but in hot weather, when the growth is active, it is 
necessary to give fresh supplies every seven days. 
On these occasions the bottle is emptied and an 
entirely fresh supply of the diluted food is given. In 
this way you will produce a perfect plant without 
putting it into the soil. 

The experiments which have been carried out go far 
to prove that plants take their supplies in a very 
dilute form, and yet these homeopathic quantities 
are really necessary. Take, for example, the one drop 
of iron solution added to a quart of water, being a 
ratio of about one to twenty thousand, and yet 
this minute supply was absolutely necessary. It was 
discovered by the same chemist that, when this iron 
was omitted, the young plant became yellow and 
sickly; but it quickly became green, and assumed a 
luxuriant growth, when this minute quantity of iron 
solution was added. 

In the preparation of these watery solutions it is 
necessary to use distilled v.ater if we want to arrive at 
accurate conclusions, because all natural supplies of 
water hold in solution more or less of the materials 
which plants require for food. 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTUEE. 27 



CHAPTER X. 



HOW PLANTS FEED. 

Spring waters are sometimes sufficiently charged 
with the substances tliey have dissolyed in their passage 
among rocks an'd soils, so as to be capable of main- 
taining the growth of plants. Eain-water is also more 
or less impregnated with matters taken from the air as 
it falls, so that it cannot be considered perfectly pure. 

The lesson we may learn from these facts are, that 
plants take in their mineral food in an exceedingly 
dilute condition and in a beautifully bright form; 
likewise we learn that if they do not receive all the 
materials they require, they soon show that they have 
some want by presenting a sickly appearance, which 
will, ere long, result in a cessation of growth, and ulti- 
mately in untimely death. 

Some experiments which have been carried out by 
these trials of water culture have led to the belief that 
silica is not ahvays necessary to the growth of a plant; 
but it is safe to conclude, that all these substances 
found in a plant when grown naturally in a fertile 
soil, and which are constantly produced there in the 
highest perfection, are desirable for the plants. It 
will be always safest for us to accept the constant pres- 
ence of substances found in the largest and best crops 
of any cultivated plant, as a sure indication that those 
substances are desirable for complete growth. It has 
been proved that many of these substances are absolutely 
necessary, and, as a matter of prudence, the farmer 
should regard a complete supply as being needful, 
and make provision accordingly. 



28 ELEMENTS OF 

In the riglit and jiroper use of these researches, made 
in the growth of plants by the aid of these solutions of 
substances found in them, a yaluable lesson is learned, 
which may be profitably utilized by all cultivators of 
the soil. The delicate and clean character of the food 
received by the plants, and the bright and transparent 
stream of water which conveys the food into the roots, 
indicate some great changes taking place in the soil; 
when, for example, farm-yard manure has been used upon 
the land, the most olTensive materials are often applied, 
and wisely so, too; but the plant does not feed upon 
them until, by changes carried on in the soil, they are 
passed into the circulation in a condition as bright, 
clean, and odorless as the water which sparkles in 
the goblets on our dining-tables. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE SOIL AKD ITS CHARACTEKS. 

Op the three sources of plant food, viz., air, water, 
and soil, the soil requires from the farmer the most 
attention, and may be said to be the only one under 
his control; because air and rain-water can generally be 
obtained by plants without aid from man, and are the 
same quality and contain the same properties all over 
the earth, while soils differ greatly, containing in some 
places little plant food, and in others the greatest 
fertility. 

The cultivation of the soil is now considered by all 
intelligent men as a manufacturing business of the 
highest importance to the w^'lfare of nations. 

Farm experience may justly be recognized as the 
rudder which controls the course of the agricultural 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGEICULTURE. 29 

vessel, and vre may also very, properly regard agricul- 
tural science as the farmer's compass and chart, 
directing his vessel to the desired port. These, Avlien 
skillfully used, become of infinite value to the farmer. 
It would be as foolish for the farmer to reject the help 
of agricultural science as it -would be for the mariner to 
throw the compass and chart overboard; and, on the 
other hand, it would be as perfectly unreasonable for 
agi'icultural science to ignore farm experience as it 
would be in the mariner to unship his rudder and send 
it adrift. Of what avail would chart and compass be 
if the rudder (farm experience) be ignored. 

We have spoken of the cultivation of the soil as a 
manufacturing business; the soil, therefore, Ave must 
regard as the raw material from which the cultiva- 
tors have to produce the goods which are in demand, 
possessing those qualities necessary to bring the 
highest price in the market. 

Other manufacturers, who produce goods from raw 
material, such as wool, cotton, timber, iron, or clay, 
bring to their aid every appliance that scientific inves- 
tigation has discovered, with a view to economy in 
labor and the making of the very best fabric capable of 
being produced from the material used. It must be 
clearly evident that those who are to make the cultiva- 
tion of the soil their business should have a thorough 
knowledge of the particular soil which they have to 
cultivate. Every farmer must bring science and skill 
to his aid if he may hope to draw from his land the 
largest amount of produce, of the greatest 
value and lowest cost, and at the same time keep 
his land up to the highest state of fertility. 

The soil is generally regarded as merely earthy 
matter, devoid of all interest, except as a plant- 
growing source. If vre observe closely, and form an 



30 ELEMENTS OF 

acquaintance witli onr soils, we very soon detect 
evidences of character, which close]y approximates 
animated existence, sucli as tempers, wills, and 
dispositions. 

"Jlie farmer's success frequently turns upon his 
familiar acquaintance with these points of character, 
yet few stop to inquire into the causes of these varia- 
tions; but when the inquiring farmer traces out these 
variations, thereby becoming more intimate with them, 
the soil becomes interesting, and seems to become 
invested with new attributes of life. 

Often have we been delighted and instructed by the 
conversation of the farmers wlio were the originators of 
the Eandolpli County Agricultural Society, in Illinois— 
men wlio had spent their agricultural apprenticeship in 
the pluvial climate of Scotland — while talking of their 
farm practice, each applying to his different fields 
distinct characters, as if they were living realities. 
One luid a field that was always hungry; another a 
field tlnit was sick and needed rest; another had one 
that was ahvays grateful, responding kindly for the 
labor given; another had one that was thin-skinned 
and shy ; another hud one that was stiff and stub- 
born; anotlicr had one that Avas sour and sulky 
and never kindly, etc. Each had tried his particular 
experiment for each peculiar character, keenly watch- 
ing effects and searching for causes. It is not to be 
Avondcrcd at tliafc tlicse men succeeded in making an 
ample competence, as all cultivators of the soil are sure 
to do who take the same lively interest in their land, 
and become familiar with its character. 



SCIEKTIFIC AND rfiACTICAL AGEICULTUKE. 31 



CHAPTER XII. 



GEOLOGICAL INFLUENCE ON SOIL AND NATIONAL 
CHARACTER. 

The soil lias a history as well as a character, extend- 
ing over vast periods of time, and has seen many ups 
and downs; indeed its history gives us a series of inci- 
dents of thrilling interest, and, to contemplation, a 
subject full of wonders and an endless, awe-inspiring 
theme. 

The history of the human race records the rise and 
decline of nations and the progressive develop- 
ment of man's mental faculties ; that of the soil, the 
gradual evolution of that part of creation which made 
it possible for the inhabitants of the world to attain 
their present physical condition. 

Had the exterior crust of the earth been subject to 
no modifying causes since its first formation, there 
would have been no soil on its surface. There has 
been, however, a continuous series of changes going on, 
occasioned by the untiring and incessant operations of 
the various forces in nature, such as the rending of 
the earthquake, the upheaving of the volcano, and the 
universal operations of chemical and electrical 
agencies. 

Y/e find, by the testimony of the rocks, the record of 
the progressive work of creation, and the study 
of geology unfolds to the mind the indubitable proof 
of a design infinitely more provident and far-reaching 
than is possible for the highest human intelligence to 
fully comprehend or realize. 



32 ELEMENTS OF 

TliG history of the rise and decline of nations cannot 
be fully understood by any one Avho is ignorant of the 
long chain of events Avhich had transpired, and slowly, 
but inevitably, prepared the conditions -which sur- 
rounded them, Avitliout any act or design of theirs, 
and which controlled them to an extent which was 
entirely overlooked by them. 

The controlling influence of the distant past can 
be no longer ignored. We must recognize how the 
physical condition of the earth's structure has in- 
fluenced political boundaries, and how the rise and 
fall of great empires, as well as their civilization and 
mental development, have been the unavoidable results 
of geological causes. 

A chain of geological events has shaped the destiny 
of the people of the United States to take the front 
rank of the great nations of the earth, both morally, 
mentally, and physically; with a capability of sur- 
passing those of the Old World, in proportion to its 
richer soil, vast mineral deposits, and more ex- 
tensive domain. 

Whatever the future may have in store for the 
American nation, it may be set doAvn as an incontro- 
vertible fact, that its destiny was part of the plan of 
creation, Avhcn its foundation was laid in primeval 
and lifeless seas: that built it up layer by layer with all 
the elements of wealth and power; enriching it 
at one time Avith valuable metalliferous deposits; at 
another period with lime or marble; at another Avilh 
coal; and at another with stratified rocks; that 
raised mountains to give variety to its scenery and 
climate; that denuded the mountain peaks and cold 
uplands atom by atom to furnish a fertile soil in a 
hospitable climate for the agriculturist; and that caused 
the great rivers to flow in the fruitful valleys to furnish 
highways for travel and commerce. 



SCIEHTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGEICULTURE. 36 

Creation to tlie geologist no longer means but a single 
act of illimitable power. It gives him a grander 
and sublimer view. The testimony of the rocks, 
when rightly interpreted, gives him evidence of a 
creation that is continuous, unfolding a design that is 
as illimitable in its origin as its final consummation 
transcends all human speculation. In short, geology 
reveals to man the Great Designer as a Being infinite 
in knowledge, wisdom, power, justice, good- 
ness, and truth. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HISTOEY OF THE SOIL AlsTD WHEKCE DERIVED. 

The knowledge of the character and history of the 
soil will give the farmer instruction which he may 
utilize with great advantage, as the same forces 
are operating now as then which did the work. 

We have now come to that part where the questions 
naturally present themselves : From whence came the 
first soil? How "Was it formed? It will now be our 
task to answer these questions plainly and clearly. 

Soil is the result of the breaking down of rocks, with 
only one exception, that formed by vegetation, and com- 
monly known as peat. All over the world a continual 
change is going on by which the whole surface of the 
land is being gradually washed down into the Val- 
leys, or deposited along the level banks of rivers, 
or in lakes, or finally washed quite down into the 
seas. 

The wearing down of the stone Avork of our buildings 
fairly represents the mode in which rocks decay, and 
thus the fine mealy, earthy matter is produced 



34 ELEMENTS Of 

which constitutes the soil. Through long geological 
periods, "which human investigation cannot name by 
figures, with any pretension to accuracy, this decay 
of the rocky surface has been going on without inter- 
mission^ and is still going on, so that we have now an 
abundance of this earthy inatter all over the face of 
the globe, amply sufficient for the wants of mankind. 

Geology further informs us that at one time, very 
far back in the world's history, the surface of the earth 
consisted only of rocks, which are called primitive 
rocks. There are large masses of these still remain- 
ing, which enable us to know exactly their nature and 
character. The surfaces of these rocks were pulver- 
ized by the gases existing in the air, just as 
they are pulverized now — which was the first soil upon 
this world's surface. Since then a series of changes 
have taken place, which geology reveals to us in part. 
It tells us that that first soil has been formed again 
into rocks, which again were reduced to soil, and 
again turned into rocks, and these changes have been 
taking place over and over again, as proved by 
the various geological formations. 

In the age in which one kind of primitive rock was 
soil, portions of that soil intermingled with portions 
from different primitive rocks, and in this manner 
soils have been modified in character; and these again 
have been greatly changed in their physical condition 
by animal and vegetable life. 

So you see the soil of the field has a descent and an 
antiquity very extraordinary and wonderful indeed, and 
full of instruction, especially to the cultivators of it. 

Now, as these reconstructions took place in this 
manner, wo should find in the primitive rocks the 
identical materials which we have in the soils of 
our fields, as these primitive rocks were the magazines 



SCIENTIFIC AND TRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 35 

from which all the supi^lies were obtained, and the 
various rocks, which were formed at later periods, are 
but reconstructions of the original materials. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



CONSTITUENTS OF PRIMITIVE ROCKS AND HOW BROKEN 
TO SOIL. 

Primitive rocks consist of three tolerably distinct 
groups, and are named by geologists as granite, 
syenite, and trap ; and by analyses are found to con- 
tain the following materials: 

GRANITE. SYENITE. TRAP. 

Silica 73. 59.8 43 

Aluminia IG. 16.8 14 

Ferreous Oxide 1.5 7. 15.3 

Lime 1.5 4.5 13.1 

Magnesia 5 3.G 9.1 

Potash G. G.G 1.3 

Soda 3.5 1,3 3.0 

Phosphoric Acid, Sulphur, and Man- 
ganese Traces. Traces. Traces. 

Moisture None. 1.4 1.3 

100. 100. 100. 

The composition of the original earthy matter, you 
will perceive, varied a good deal in character, and, 
accordingly, by the mixing of these materials, 
the character of the reconstructed rocks Avas affected; 
likewise marked variations in the soils, which 
were finally produced, are to be found and thus 
accounted for. 

It will be well now to notice how the crumbling of 
rocks is accomplished. The agencies are easily under- 
stood, and are at work now. It is very important that 



36 ELEMENTS OF 

the farmer sliould know these agencies, as they 
are, even at the present time, lii.s valiuihle friends 
and lielpers. Every person has noticed tlio heautifnl, 
bright polish of the moukl-board of a plough after it 
has been at work for a time, particularly in sandy soil. 
When it is left in the field for a day or tMo, tlio 
beautiful polish becomes dim with rust. This rust is 
caused by the action of the air on the iron. Chemists 
investigated the matter, and solved the mystery, and 
discovered the depredators. They find it to be a very 
busy body, known to ns by the name of Oxygen, who 
is at the bottom of the mischief; they also discovered 
a companion of his, Avho is an able helper, and is known 
to ns by the name of Carbonic Acid. These two 
companions are as invisible as air, and are called 
gases. They not only attack iron, but they operate on 
rocks; it makes no difference to them how hard and 
tough they be. Now rub the rust off the mould-board 
and examine it carefully; notice Avhat a fine powdej' 
it is; this shows how powerful the operators are who 
did the work. The red rust contains iron, which 
was taken from the mould-board by these two 
agencies. Had the greatest force known to human 
skill been exerted on this metal, it could not have so 
completely powdered it as these two gases have done, 
without noise and almost without observation. Now, 
you will not be astonished Avhen we tell yon that they 
are equally mighty in pulverizing the hard granite. 



CHAPTER XV. 



AGENCIES WHICH REDUCE EOCKS TO SOIL. 

The action of water, and the change of tempera- 
ture, work also together in pulverizing the hard rock. 



SCIENTIFIC AND PKACTICAL AGIIICULTUEE. 3? 

These agencies, by being combined, their power to 
break down is amazingly increased. To demonstrate 
clearly to your mind the processes by Avhich all these 
agencies do their work so minutely, so completely, 
and with a power beyond any resistance, we propose to 
take a piece of granite, and watch, and record the prO' 
cess. It will be necessary, in order to give the work- 
men a fair chance to shoAV their powers, that Ave allow 
them an opportunity to reach it, and all that is neces- 
sary is simply to bring it to the surface. The 
instant it is there the Avorkraen begin the attack 
on all sides. If you Avill examine the table given in 
a former page you will see that granite, Avith all its 
density and hardness, contains two elements Avithin 
itself Avliich cannot Avithstand the agencies existing in 
the air. These tAvo elements are iron and potash, 
and are generally knoAvn, The oxygen and carbonic 
acid immediately begin their work on the iron and 
potash, and, after a time, we see a rusty mark on the 
surface of the granite. You may easily verify this fact 
by visiting a cemetery in Avhich there is a granite 
monument of a fcAV years standing. After the Avork 
has gone on for years Ave find small holes in the granite. 
These agents, like miners, have been driving "headings," 
and Avorking out "rooms," and sending off Avhat they 
have mined, thereby making the granite ready for the 
operations of the other tAvo agents, Avater and tempera- 
ture. The Avater penetrates the openings made by the 
"powers of the air;" then frost comes. You remember 
Avhat he did with the pitcher filled Avith water Avhen he 
Avent forth one frosty night — so he does Avith the granite 
pitchers; because Avater possesses the quality of grow- 
ing bigger when it freezes, and bursts the AA\alls 
enclosing it. The little fragments are held there till 
a thaAV comes, Avhen they are Avashed doAvn from 



38 ELEMENTS OF 

their former j)osition; the openings are tlins enlarged, 
making room for a greater number of tlie airy work- 
men; and thus the work goes on Aviili redoubled 
capacity and with energy untiring. No resting with 
these miners to take a smoke, or retiring from the work 
to take refreshments. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



HOW HOCKS ABE CRUMBLED WHICH HAVE KO IROIST 
MATTER IK THEM, 

You may say, "Now I understand how oxygen and 
carbonic acid, assisted by frost and water, are enabled 
to break doAvn and pulverize granite and similar first 
rocks, but I cannot see how they can effect a like result 
with rocks in which there is no iron to enter into 
an alliance with them to accomplish the Avork of 
demolition, no traitor in the camp, if we be allowed the 
expression." We know of no rock besides fire-clay rock 
which, when blasted in the mine, is nearly as hard as 
whinstone, that is so free from iron particles. This 
rock is valuable just in proportion as it is free from 
all iron matter, consequently the atmospheric agencies 
have not an opportunity of entering into an alliance 
with their old colleague — iron. 

Having long heard of the Mt. Savage fire-brick, so 
greatly famed for its ability to endure intense heat in 
furnaces Avithout crumbling or fluxing, Avhich it could 
not do if even an appreciable quantity of iron were 
present, upon a late occasion we visited the mines 
from which the "clay" is obtained for the purpose of 
testing this very subject. By the kindness of Mr. 
Findlay, foreman of mines, Ave Avere taken a long dis- 
tance under ground, entering the opening in the side 



SCIENTIFIC AND PKACTICAL AGKICULTURE. 39 

of the mountain in a tram-way car, the tram-way run- 
ning nearly horizontal to the "face" of the rock, where 
tlie miners, with drill and sledge, were diligently 
making holes in which to put powder to blow it out 
from its ancient bed, where it had been sleeping quietly 
for so many ages. The sharp chinking sound made by 
the steel drill and sledge, gave testimony to the hard- 
ness of the rock. We examined the fine dust taken 
from the drilled hole, and, rubbing it ])etween the 
thumb and finger, easily detected its fragmentary 
condition, by its fine gritty feeling. We Avere there 
shown a stratum of rock, which was so free from 
any trace of iron as to be pronounced by the chemists 
"pure fire-clay rock." We procured a specimen from 
this sti-atum, and, after submitting it to the rains and 
the frosts for about two months, it was completely 
reduced to atoms; on testing it between the thumb and 
finger, it felt as smooth and fine as the particles com- 
posing grease. There was no fragment, no grit — the 
demolition was complete. 

Although no ferreous matter was present to join in 
conspiracy with the oxygen and carbonic acid of the 
air, yet water found an entrance, and permeated the 
specimen entirely, which we had taken for a test; and 
as water will not be restrained from growing 
bigger when it freezes, so the water in the specimen 
froze, and, in its effort to grow bigger, separated the 
rock particle by particle. 

We also visited the brick works of the same company 
in the village of ML Savage, Md., to examine the rock- 
crushing process. Mr. Clifford, foreman of the works, 
very kindly showed and explained the operation. The 
rock is subjected to the crushing force of an iron roller 
of immense weight. When it is of sufficient fineness it 
falls through a sifter into a receptacle below, and taken 



46 ELEMENTS OF 

from there by an elevator, and passed on to undergo 
the operations of mixing with water, moulding, drying, 
and burning. So complete, apparently, is the rock 
broken down, that the clothes of the men attending the 
crusher are as white as those of a miller; yet when that 
wliieh was brouglit up by the elevator was examined, it 
was found to be cliiefly fragmentary. 

In the contemplation of this work we cannot refrain 
from exclaiming: Man's works, how powerful they are! 
But thoy fade into insignificance when contrasted with 
the complete and perfect work of the cpiiet operators 
appointed to do tlic will of the Great Designer. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE BREAKING DOWN OF EOCKS TO SOIL. 

Some may think that this breaking down of the 
primitive rocks could only take place to a very limited 
extent; but if we reflect for a moment and bring before 
our mind the time when "dry land" first appeared, and 
there was no soil, and think of the immeasurable 
surface presented to the air agencies, and the vastly 
greater quantity of carbonic acid in the air then than 
now, together with the other agencies, water and 
temperature, we shall understand, in a measure, how 
illimitable the power was. The work went on 
much more rapidly with the secondary rocks and 
later formations, they being much softer; and, as the 
work of demolition went on, the rocks got covered 
more and more, and presented less and less surface to 
the air, and were placed beyond the influence of all the 
pulverizing agencies; thus tlie work of breaking down 
gradually decreased, and finally stopped, till again 
thrown up into the air. 



SCIENTIFIC AKD PKACTlCAL AGIlICtJLTURE. 41 

As soon as there was sufficient soil made for '"'man 
to till and dress it," and employ his skill and knowl- 
edge in the production of food, and all things 
necessary for his comfort, the reduction of rocks 
gradually diminished because the work was sufficiently 
advanced to meet the necessity of the case. It now 
remains with the intelligence and skill of the farmer 
"to make the soil fruitful and bring forth abun- 
dantly." 

We may mention another agency ^^■hich helps to 
break and pulverize some kinds of hard rocks. If a 
piece of polished marble be covered with clean sand, 
and a few seeds of mustard, or other seeds, be placed in 
it, and then put in a moist, warm atmosphere, the seeds 
will soon germinate; after allowing the young plant to 
grow for a short time, and then clean everything from 
the marble, minute holes will be found in it, which 
were made by the acid sap of the young roots eating 
into it to obtain food. 

The roots of trees, too, entering crevices of rocks, 
frequently split off great blocks as they expand in 
thickness; even paving-stones have been known to be 
broken by the growth of tree roots under them. 

The In-oken and powdered rocks formed in these 
various ways are washed down the slopes of the moun- 
tains by rains into the rivers; in many flat plains the 
rivers overflow frequently, and spread their material 
over the land. In this case we see a sorting and dis- 
tributing action taking place. When a river rushes 
down as a torrent it carries with it mud, sand, gravel, 
and even large stones. But when the descent becomes 
less, so does the swiftness of the current, and the large 
stones are first dropped, aftervrard the gravel, then the 
sand, and, lastly, the fine nmd is distributed over the 
plain, and only deposited where the current has almost 



42 ELEMENTS OF 

or quite ceased. In this "vviiy beds of gravel, sand, and 
clay are formed, thus producing soils differing from 
each other. Great quantities of the same materials 
have been carried into the sea, and aj)parently lost; but 
beds which were formed in that way, many ages ago, 
have been since lifted up by earthquakes or other 
movements equally powerful, and from these 
beds many of our soils are formed. 

When we recognize the power of nature's forces exist- 
ing in the air, including temperature and moisture; the 
action of the roots of plants themselves; the tread of 
animals; the rushing rivers causing rocks to grind 
each other; the glaciers, these ice-rivers fed by the 
ever-accumulating snow, descending mountain gorges, 
with slow but irresistible force, smoothing, grinding, 
and striating the rocks in their Avay; the volcano, 
throwing out the molten lava and ashes; and the 
icebergs of the glacial period, which, when the land 
was being elevated by some internal force, were 
arrested in their course, and descended the mountain 
sides, smoothing hills and valleys among which they 
passed, and finally melting and leaving their cleiris, as 
mounds of sand, gravel, or boulders; all these gave 
their contribution; and the varied particles thus inter- 
mingling, the formation of the different classes 
of soils ceases any longer to be a subject of 
wonder. 

CHAPTER XVIIL 



THE PHYSICAL COMPOSITION OF SOILS. 

We have now learned that some soils have been 
carried a long distance from the place where they 
were formed, and may, therefore, be very different from 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 43 

the rocks underlying them, while others have 
been more quietly spread out by the rain upon and 
among the rocks from which they are derived. These 
are called native or local soils (soils in situ) ; the former 
are said to be transported soils. 

The great variation in character renders it neces- 
sary that Ave should be able to distinguish soils, 
so that we may be able to describe them Avith some 
degree of accuracy. For this purpose sand and clay 
have been selected for the sake of contrast, io enable 
us to divide them into two distinct groups. 

In the sand on the seashore Ave have the one in per- 
fection; and in the clays used for pottery Ave have the 
best specimen of tlie other. The one, Avlien it is mixed 
Avith Avater in a vessel, falls to the bottom rapidly; the 
other, Avhen it is mixed Avith Avater, falls to the bottom 
sloAvly, rendering the Avater muddy for a considerable 
length of time. There are other marked differences in 
their character; for example, sand, Avhen it is Avet, is 
hard to the touch; it has little cohesion; it cannot be 
formed by the hand into any definite shape; it is 
gritty; it alloAvs water to pass through it rapidly, and 
is firm to the foot. Clay, on the other hand, Avhen it is 
Avet, is the direct opposite in all these respects; it is 
soft to the touch; it has great cohesion; it can be 
moulded into any definite shape ; it is soft and smooth ; 
it holds AA'ater upon its surface, and is slippery to the 
foot. 

If a soil consists of more than three-fourths sand, it 
is called a sandy soil; if, on the other hand, more tliaii 
three-fourths of its weight is clay, it is called a clay 
soil. A mixture of about half sand and half clay, it is 
called a loam. If there is rather more than half sand, 
it is called a sandy loam; if rather more than half 
clay, it is called a clay loam. All these soils may have 



44 ELEMENTS OE* 

II small quantity of lime and vegetable matter, making 
them "rich." A soil -which contains nearly a quarter 
of its "weight of lime, is called a marl ; if the rest of the 
soil is mostly sand, it is called a sandy marl; if mostly 
clay, it is a clay marl. Soils which contain a large 
quantity of lime arc calcareous soils. A soil which con- 
tains a large portion of vegetable matter, is called a 
peaty soil. These differences among soils may be tabu- 
lated as follows: 



Sandy Soil 



f Sand I sand to all sand. 

\ Sandy marl ij sand to ] lime. 

/Clay f clay to all clay. 



^^'^^ ^°'' Iciay marl f clay to i lime. 

(Sandy loam ^ sand to ^ clay. 
Clay loam f clay to ^ sand. 
Sandy loam f sand to ^ clay. 

Calcareons soil \ lime to all lime. 

Peaty soil ]^ humus to all humus. 

Each of these soils can be again divided into poor, 
middling, and rich, or fertile, according to the quantity 
of the other matters contained in it. Thus, a loamy 
soil, containing lime and vegetable matter, as 
well as sand and clay, is richer than one containing 
sand and clay only; and, generally speaking, the most 
fertile soils — that is, those yielding the greatest amount 
of plant food' — are those which are composed of a fair 
mixture of all the four constituents. 

A cubic foot of dry sand weighs about one hundred 
and ten pounds, A\liile the same bulk of dry clay weighs 
only about seventy-five pounds; yet a farmer calls a 
sandy soil light, and a clay soil heavy. His judg- 
ment is Ijased upon the ease or difficulty of working 
the soil more than the actual weight. The par- 
ticles of s:iud are eunii)aralively large, with no tendency 
to stick together, or to the* implements with which it is 
worked, so that a plough easily moves between the 



SCIENTIFIC sVKD PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 45 

grains; and the soil is called light because it makes 
liglit Avork. In a clay soil, however, the particles are 
so fine, and have such a tendency to stick to one 
another, and to the implements passing between them, 
that much difficulty is experienced in moving and 
separating them; this is heavy Vvork; therefore, this 
kind of soil is said to be heavy. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



CAPILLARY ATTRACTIOiq" AS AFFECTED BY THE PHYS- 
ICAL CO]!fDITIO]Sr OF THE SOIL. 

The power of holding moisture by the soil is another 
important subject for the farmer, which we Avill now 
briefly investigate. If one end of a fine glass tube be 
dipped in water, the water rises i-n it; and the finer the 
tube the higher above the surface the Avater rises. This 
is called capillary attraction, because of the hair- 
like fineness of the tube. The same action takes place 
Avherever there are small spaces betAveen substances, as 
in a sponge, the Avick of a lamp, or a lump of sugar — all 
of Avhich have the poAver of draAving and holding Avater 
in the little spaces they contain. This is a very impor- 
tant property in soils. The Avater in a saucer under a 
floAver-pot containing soil is taken up in this Avay, rising 
up to a greater height if the spaces are small, and 
to a less height if the spaces are large, and staying 
there Avithout falling back. In coarse sand it Avould 
not rise far; but in clay, Avhere the particles are finer 
and closer, the capillary attraction is greater, and the 
Avater rises much higher. 

NoAV suppose one hundred pounds of dry sand to be 
placed in a vessel, with holes in the bottom, it will be 



46 ELEMENTS OF 

found to receive and hold twenty-five pounds of water 
before it begins to drop; then fill it with the same 
(piantity of loam, and it will be found to hold forty 
pounds; if filled with clay loam, it will hold fifty 
pounds; and if filled with clay, it will be found to hold 
seventy pounds of Avater before beginning to drop. 
Clay soils likewise absorb more moisture from the 
atmosphere than sandy soils. If one hundred pounds of 
sand be spread out when the atmosphere is moist, but 
rainless, for twelve hours in the night, it will absorb 
only a few ounces of Avater ; if clay loam, two and a-half 
pounds; and if clay, nearly four pounds of Avater. 

The influence of capillary attraction is beneficially 
felt during the period of the groAvth of plants. IIoav- 
ever Avell a soil may be supplied Avith the food required 
for a crop, plants only can make use of it in a liquid 
form; the presence of Avater to carry the food into the 
circulation is jUSt as necessary as having the food 
there. During the summer months, Avhen the sun's 
rays are shining strongly upon vegetation, large quanti- 
ties of Avater are needed, and it is at such times that 
this system of attraction proves its utility, by bringing 
up to the roots refreshing supplies of Avater, finely 
divided, like a diffused mist in the soil, Avhich 
enables the groAvth to push on luxuriantly. 

But it may reasonably be asked by some, Avho may 
think of drainage in this connection: What is the use 
of draining water from the soil if it be carried back 
by this capillary attraction ? We shall try to giA'e you 
light on that subject in another chapter; but, in the 
meantime, Ave shall ask you to reflect, and find out the 
reason for the flower-pot having a hole in the 
bottom, and Avhiit Avould be the consequence if no 
hole Avas there. 



SCIEOTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 47 



CHAPTER XX. 



PHYSICAL COKDITIOJSr OF THE SOIL. 

The influence of the mechanical or physical concli- 
tion of the soil is a subject fraught with the greatest 
importance to the agriculturist. We may take it for 
granted that all acknowledge the need of air, warmth, 
and moisture to enable a plant to grow. In order that 
the seeds may have air, a loose condition of the soil 
is necessary. For this condition sand is better than 
clay, because the spaces between the grains are larger, 
and thus allow the air to enter. But if these spaces 
are too large, there cannot be enough of water retained 
in the soil, and the young plant will consequently suffer 
for want of moisture. Again, if too much moisture is 
retained in the soil, it not only shuts out the air, but it 
becomes cold, and deprives the plant of warmth, thus 
preventing the plant from receiving the second requisite 
necessary for its growth. From these facts we are 
forced to the conclusion that the best kind of soil, in 
regard to its physical condition, for a seed-bed, is a 
mixture of sand and clay — that is, a loam, not so close 
and fine in its grains as to prevent the free access of air 
and warmth, and not so open as sand, allov/ing the 
Avater to run through it too quickly, or having little 
power of capillary attraction. 

We may now conclude this subject of the physical 
condition of soils by briefly referring to the other two 
agencies that have contributed matter found in our 
agricultural soils. In all cultivated soils you will 
observe a black substance intermingled with the 



48 ELEMENTS OF 

mineral matters; it is generally known by the name of 
"vegetable mold" or "Immns;" this is contributed 
chiefly by the air and the sea. 

It -will be learned from the above that the physical 
condition of soils is entirely due to the proportions 
in -which sand, clay, lime, vegetable matter, 
and mineral fragments enter into their compo- 
sition. 

CHAPTER XXI. 



CHEMICAL ANALYSES OF SOILS. 

There is another section of the work which treats of 
the composition of the soils, and this shows us Avhat 
bodies are found in them, in what proportion, and in 
wliat conditions of solubility. These are determined 
by chemical analysis, which is very difBcult even for 
professional chemists to do. It is generally looked 
upon as something which may be easily done, but it is 
one of the most complicated and troublesome analysis 
which has to be carried out. 

The information thus to be obtained is of immense 
value to the farmer, provided it be carried out in an 
exact, correct, and proper manner. Among the 
first things vre learn by this examination of the soil is, 
that a very small portion of the best soils is really 
ready with food for the immediate use of plants. 
That which is ready for immediate service is called the 
active portion of the soil, whilst the remaining store 
is known as the dormant or sleeping portion. 

Here then we get our first chemical division of the 
soil, viz.: The active matter and the dormant 
matter. The dormant matter is only sleeping, and 
while in that condition it is valueless, yet it is really of 
great value. It awaits the intelligent farmer to arouse 



SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGEICULTURE. 49 

it from sleepi when it will become as the reserve forces 
of un army, to be called to duty when the active forces 
are becoming exhausted. It would be imprudent to 
allow those on active duty to be completely exhausted 
before calling up the reserves; but on very many farms 
the reserves arc never called up, and the land in 
consequence is completely Avorn out and exhausted, 
while yet containing a vast amount of fertile matter, 
which has been permitted to remain in peaceful slumber 
in the soil. 

The chemical analyses of soils have been very gener- 
ally carried out, as if all the fertilizing matters present 
in them were at the service of the growing crops. 
It was thought that if a farmer knew what his crop 
wanted, and also what he had in the soil, it would be 
an easy matter to supply the wants by a manure con- 
taining the particular ingredients needed. 

In that hope he was bitterly disappointed, because 
the analysts disregarded the well known fact above 
mentioned, and analyzed the soil as if the active and 
dormant matters were in the same condition, and were 
all ready for the use of plants. 

If a farmer is to be benefited by an analysis of his 
soil he must know what he has there that is avail- 
able for his crops ; there must be a distinct line 
drawn between the active and dormant portions 
of the soil; then he may get information which will be 
valuable for his guidance. 



CHAP TER XXII. 

AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY — NECESSITY FOR DEEP 
PLOWING. 

You have been shown that plants require a great 
variety of different kinds of food for their full and 



50 ELEMENTS OF 

perfect growth. Not one of these bodies is avaihible as 
phint food, unless it is in such a condition as to be 
easily dissolved in Avater, aided by some organic acid. 
Thus water, aided by a weak acid, is the vehicle by 
which the food passes from the soil into the plant. 
Solid matter which will not dissolve in such Avater 
may be useful mechanically in giving an abode to the 
plant, but cannot enter its organism. 

It is of the utmost importance to the farmer to 
inform himself as to the possibility of making the 
dormant matter take the active form. This is quite 
possible, and under good cultivation it does take 
place to a large extent. The friendly helpers are the 
atmospheric agencies, which Avere so effective in break- 
ing doAvn the rocks into soil. 

Having increased the amount of surface soil by deep 
cultivation, Ave find the rain Avater carrying its 
supply of oxygen and carbonic acid, persistently bring- 
ing plant food into solution, and passing it over to the 
safe custody of the silicates in the soil. In this 
Avay large quantities of insoluble matter are brought 
into an active state, and in good soils Ave find it Avell 
and carefully preserved until the groAving crops demand 
the supply. It must noAV be evident, that just in pro- 
portion to the extent that Ave alloAv these atmos- 
pheric agencies to act upon the soil and subsoil, 
so Ave shall the better enable them to change the dormant 
matter, Avitli Avhich it is permitted to mix, into a condi- 
tion available for plant food. These agencies accom- 
plish a Avork Avhich is equivalent to the purchase of so 
much manure. It is, therefore, very desirable for the 
farmer to give them every opportunity for Avorking in 
his interest. 

The farmer can best facilitate this Avork by a thor- 
oughly good and timely cultivation of the soil. 



SCIEKTIFIC AKD PRACTICAL AGRICULTUKE. 51 

Let ITS compare, for the sake of making plain and clear, 
what we mean, two fields having similar soils — say 
heavy, clay soils, similarly located or side by side. In 
the one case, we will suppose the field has been 
deeply plowed in the fall, and laid up as roughly as 
possible, so as to expose as much surface as may be 
attainable to the action of the sun and air. In the 
other case, the plowing has been postponed till spring. 
In the one case, we will see that the friendly helpers 
have been at work, promoting the change of any sour 
matter, converting it into wholesome plant food, bring- 
ing some of the dormant matter into an active form, and 
making the soil loose and friable — these being all favor- 
able to the growth of vegetation. All this has been 
done by the action of the oxygen and carbonic acid in 
the air, assisted by water and temperature. In the 
second case, no effort was made to let these agencies 
bring about the same changes ; but, as the soil lay in its 
solid bed, and probably water-soaked, it was really 
becoming less fit for plant growth. In the one case, the 
land was plowed up in the spring tough and sour, 
requiring more labor than the other; yet it was not 
brought into such a productive condition. In the other 
case, we have a luxuriant growth of crops, at a smaller 
expenditure of work ; while in the other case we have 
the work of nature's agencies rejected, and the result is 
far from gratifying and very expensive. 

It is well that we should value highly these friendly 
helpers, and that we should do all we can to give them 
the best opportunity to do their work. The advice of 
the old farmer is directly to the point: "Marry the 
air and the soil, my son, for unless they be allowed to 
intermingle and join with each other freely, 
the soil will not bear abundantly." 



53 ELEMEJ^TS OF 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



DRAINAGE A MEAKS OF GETTING AIR INTO THE SOIL. 

The drainage of the land is anotlicr means adopted 
to admit the atmosphere to the soil. The common idea, 
that land is drained simply to remove water, is too 
limited; it does a great deal more. The first effect we 
see, of course, is the running away of the water; but 
water would not flow away if air is not admitted. 
This may be easily proven by the tapping of a barrel of 
cider, or any other liquid, near the bottom; in order to 
draw it, a hole must be made at the top of the vessel 
into which the air will rush as long as the liquid 
flows. 

The drains, therefore, allow the water to run away, 
because they can draw air into the soil; conse- 
quently we drain land as much for getting air into the 
land as for taking water out. The benefit arising to 
the soil is apparent; for wherever air is admitted, its 
oxygen and carbonic acid immediately commence work, 
and go silently on day and night, changing the dor- 
mant matter in the soil to its active form. 

The farmer who treats his land to thoroughly good 
cultivation and drainage, will be amply rewarded Avith 
the rapidly improved fertility of the soil. Subsoiling 
the land produces the same condition, by stirring up 
the soil which lies beneath. This is a means whereby 
the passage of water through the soil is rendered more 
easy, Avhich is followed by the air, and, as a consequence, 
more of the soil comes under its influence, provided. 



SCIENTIFIC AKD PRACTICAL AGRICULTUEE. 53 

always, that the great agricultural flower-pot has a hole 
in the bottom. 

Another advantage arising from the passage of the 
air is, tliat it sweetens the soil by changing the sour 
and unhealthy decaying vegetable matter in it, 
to the higher form of carbonic acid, Avhich is one 
of the farmer's friends. The yellow oxide of iron, 
which is a poison to plants, becomes, by the action of 
the oxygen in the air, another helping friend to the 
farmer. 

In addition to all these, there is yet another servant 
ready to aid him, and that is the ammonia in the air. 
This is a yery expensive substance to purchase ; yet it 
exists in the air, and a very considerable supply can 
be gathered from it by the soil, if it is properly 
aerated. 

Now, you will see that there are many servants wait- 
ing to help the farmer to make his land more fertile, 
if he will but receive their ever ready and willing 
assistance. These ask no wages; they require no rest; 
but day and night they are ready to 'work if they are 
permitted to do it. Water-soaked land repels all 
these friendly helpers, as well as solidified land. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE ACTIOIsr OF HEAT AKD OTHER ADVANTAGES OP 
DRAIKAGE. 

In order to understand the beneficial effects of drain- 
age more clearly, we shall investigate the laws governing 
the action of heat, because we may not be able to 



54 ELEMENTS OF 

grasp the ideas gatisfactorily unless "sve start with ^ 
knowledge of first principles. 

Substances that are warmer than their surroundings, 
conimunicale their excess of heat in tliree distinct 
ways: (1) By conduction. (2) I3y convection. (3) By 
radiation. 

To demonstrate the conduction of heat, hold one 
end of a brass wire between tlie thumb and linger, and 
the other end in the flame of a lamp; the experiment 
will terminate suddenly. Now take a piece of dry 
wood the same size, and hold it in the flame; it will 
become red hot and blaze without burning the fingers. 
The heat is led along the brass wire; it makes no 
difference whether it be held to the flame upwards, 
downwards, or sideways; the wire is, therefore, 
said to be a good conductor, and wood a bad con- 
ductor. 

The conducting power of different substances varies 
considerably. Metals are good conductors. Silver 
is recognized as the best conductor, water the 
lowest, and clay the next. The ratio of their con- 
ducting power may be stated thus: Silver, 1,000; 
Avater, 1 ; clay, 4. 

Convection is the conveying of heat by the air, 
gases, or liquids. Tlie common notion, that heat 
ascends, is based upon the action of heat by convec- 
tion. Water, as we liave stated above, is one of the 
very poorest conductors of heat; yet we all know that 
heat is transmitted through it, as wlicn we boil Avater in 
a pot. If, however, we placed water in a fire-clay 
pot, and apply the heat to the top, wliieh is tlie way 
heat is applied to the soil, tliat "waited-on pot" 
would be long in boiling. The upper film of water 
receiving the heat would remain lighter than tlie rest, 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 65 

and retain its position; and, being a poor conductor of 
heat, it parts slowly with its heat to the water beneath, 
which remains cold. Its warmth is not increased 
very much by the pot, because its material is also a poor 
conductor. "When the heat is applied to the bottom of 
an iron pot, the hot metal of the pot heats the bottom 
film of water by direct contact; this film expands, 
becomes lighter, and rises through the water above it, 
warming it by contact, and speedily causing the 
"pot to boil." 

Radiation is a flinging off of heat in every direc- 
tion. Bright, shining surfaces are profligate radiators 
and poor absorbers of rays of heat; they, therefore, 
cool quickly. The soil is one of the best absorbers 
of heat when it is drained of superfluous water; but if, 
however, stagnant water has to be evaporated from it, 
tlie heat is carried away and the soil remains 
cold. 

That evaporation has a cooling influence, you may 
easily prove to your own satisfaction by wetting your 
finger Avith water in a warm room and hold it up; 
you will feel the cooling influence; if made wet Avitli 
spirits, the evaporation will be more rapid and 
produce a cooler feeling; and if ether be used, which 
almost instantly evaporates, it Avill produce a still 
cooler feeling. Ice may be produced by evaporation, 
so great is its pOAver of carrying away heat. 

According to the natural laAVS governing the effect 
of heat on Avater, it contracts gradually in volume 
until its temperature is about thirty-nine degrees; 
below this it begins to expand until it reaches 
thirty-two degrees, Avhen, under ordinary conditions, it 
becomes solid, and, in doing so, undergoes a greater 
expansion, eight volumes of Avater becoming about 
nine of ice. 



56. ELEMENTS OP 

The expansion of water below thirty-nine degrees 
has very important results. It prevents all our 
water supplies being frozen up. If water contracted 
continuously till it reached the freezing point, 
we should have all the water in our lakes reduced to 
that temperature before freezing commenced on the 
surface, and a very brief continuance of freezing 
weather would solidify the whole mass ; but, as it 
is, the water at thirty-nine degrees, being most dense, 
sinks to the bottom and there remains; while the 
water at thirty-two degrees, being the lightest, 
remains on the surface, and ice, being a bad con- 
ductor of heat, preserves the too rapid cooling of 
the water beneath. We have, consequently, a gradual 
freezing of the surface doAvnwards. 

We understand now how a proper system of drainage 
favors the passage of water through the soil, and passes 
it aAvay to some lower level. It will also be easily un-> 
derstood that the passage of warm air through the soil 
must, of necessity, raise its temperature by its heat 
being transferred to the land. This is a very constant 
source of heat during the months when the crops are in 
a very active state of growth, and is a means of making 
a distribution of the heat to a greater depth and 
more equally throughout the soil. 

The warm rays of the sun falling on land soaked 
with stagnant Water, or the warm breezes passing over 
it, do not warm it, as they would drier land. The 
stagnant water has to be made to pass away as a vapor 
before the warmth of the sun or tlic warm breezes can 
exert a stimulating influence on the soil. The cause of 
this will be easily understood when we remember What 
a quantity of heat is required to change Water into 
vapor. The consequence is that wet and iindrained 



SCIENTIFIC AKD PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 67 

land is found to be cold and unproductive ; the 
crops are always kept back in their growth, and are 
much later in coming to perfection than those grown 
upon drained land. 

The attraction by the soil, where drainage keeps it 
comparatively dry, for the heated rays of the sun is 
proven to be very great. On the fallow the portion of 
the air coming in contact with the soil becomes 
expanded and struggles upward through the superin- 
cumbent cooler air in visible wavy lines. 

The soil is also a slow radiator as well as a good 
absorber of heat. On this account the herbage on 
drained land is much less liable to be injured by 
spring frosts. This property enables it to keep up 
its temperature and prevents its being reduced to the 
freezing point for a considerable length of time. The 
power of the soil for absorbing a great quantity of heat 
and parting with it slowly has long been recog- 
nized by the farmer. When he takes a journey in his 
wagon or sleigh on a cold winter's day, he does not 
heat a block of iron or Avood to keep his feet warm, 
because he is aware that, although he can warm these 
materials to a high degree, they would part with their 
heat so rapidly that their usefulness for heating pur- 
poses would soon be gone; but he takes a brick, which 
is simply soil compressed and burned, and heats it up 
to a high degree, then rolls it up in a piece of carpet, 
and his feet are kept comfortable for a long time, 
because the brick parts slowly with the heat 
stored up in it. 

The following table is taken from Jamison's prize 
essay "On the Action of the Atmosphere in Newly 
Deepened Soil in Scotland," showing the increased 
temperature of the soil and subsoil, being 



5B 



ELEMENTS OF 



important us affecting vegetation, and likewise valnaLle 
because it is reliable and instructive on this subject: 

TAKEN IN PEUl'ECTLV I'lNE AVEATHER. 

Elevation of tem- 
perature by the 
Moan Toinporaturo. pun's rays on a 

Earth's Surlaco. Air In Shade. Oralued surface. 
Degrees. Degrees. Degrees. 

January 54.1 24.0 29.5 

February 86.2 43. 43.2 

March 99.5 4G.G 52.9 

April 121.G C1.7 59.9 

May 131.2 G7.3 G3.9 

June 139.8 75.2 64.G 

July 14G.3 81.3 65. 

August 130.1 G8.9 G1.2 

September 119.8 68.0 51.8 

October 80.8 42.8 38.0 

November 72.7 40.1 32.6 

December 59.2 35.G 23.6 

The beneficial effects of drainage for soils naturally 
water-soaked, need no further comment, and may be 
briefly summed up. The temperature of the soil is 
raisetl; porosity for moisture, though not for wet, in- 
creased; disintegration is affected, and nutritive solu- 
ble substances liberated; atmospheric gases absorbed; 
injurious substances changed bo as to be positively 
beneficial to vegetation; and the wasteful surface flow 
from fertile fields reduced to the minimum. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



OBJECTIOKS TO DRAINAGE, AND TllEIR FALLACY. 

Objections have been made to underdrainage, which 
will now occupy our attention briefly : (1) It is urged 
that the Avatcr is carried away from the land too 



SCIEIfTIFIC AND TKACTICAL AGKICULTURE. 59 

quickly, causing the overflow of rivers. (2) 

Because it is not allo-vved to remain long enough on the 
land to XDercolate down through the soil to 
supply springs. If wo reflect for a moment, Ave 
cannot fail to see how erroneous is the first objection; 
nnderdrainage increases greatly the capacity of the 
soil to hold water by giving it a larger area for dis- 
tribution. A field which is underdrained, therefore, 
holds more water before reaching the point of satura- 
tion than a field of the same character can possibly 
do without being underdrained; hence, a less flow 
of water from the drained land in proportion to 
the amount of rain frilling upon it than from the 
undrained land. 

When the Ohio Eiver overflowed its banks a few 
years ago, and wrought guch great destruction, drainage 
was held responsible in a great degree; but when reflec- 
tion had time to assume its sway, it was discovered 
that all the w^ater flowing from tile drains into the 
river and its tributaries, would not have much more 
than filled a good sized mill-race. These, Ave consider, 
to be sufficient to dispose of the first objection; and as 
for the second, the groundlessness of it will be apparent 
when we remember how small the area which is, 
and always will remain, undrained by artificial 
means. 

The clearing away of the forests, and the 
surface flow from undrained lands, may be set down, 
Avithout fear of successful contradiction, as the chief 
causes of destructive floods, and, we may add, 
excessive droughts. Just in proportion to the pro- 
tection of the earth's surface by trees from the sun's 
rays, so is the gradual melting of the winter's snoAvs ; 
without this protection, spring thaAvs are rapid, and 
torrents ensue. 



60 ELEMENTS OF 

Tlie sun's rays in passing ilirougli (lie air do not 
heat it; the air is AvaruR'd by radiation from the 
earth's surface; and tlie greater the degree of heat 
wliich tlie air readies, the greater is its capacity to 
liold moisture; tlierefore, if air bo saturated Avith 
moisture to tlie point of precipitation, and afterward 
passes in summer over a denuded surface, it 
being greatly heated by radiation from the bare sur- 
face, its capacity to hold moisture is increased, and no 
longer remains at the point of precipitation, but 
passes away to descend as rain Avhere the radiation is 
modified by the forests and the land well covered 
by vegetation. The farmers in the prairies will 
tell you mournfully, "that the showers, when most 
needed, take to the timber and follow the creeks." 
This is an observation frequently made by the prairie 
farmers. 

Another important benefit is brought about by 
thorough drainage, which of itself is sufficient reward 
for all the labor and cost in the construction of drains, 
and that is the healthful and salubrious condition 
of the atmosphere. Where is the country which 
abounds Avith malaria, bilious fevers, and agues? 
It is not in the mountains Avhere the land is drained by 
nature, and the sparkling waters gush forth from the 
drains of nature's own making, and the "living waters 
flov,-;" but all these ills of life prevail in the country 
where the land is water-soaked, having no liolc in 
the bottom of the great agricultural llower-pot, and 
where water stagnates in sloughs and ponds. 

The health of man, and beast, and herb, are all 
benefited by drainage. 

The approved method of draining is: (1) Bore and 
dig the ground to ascertain the kind of soil to the 
depth of three or four feet, so as to knoAV how fax 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 61 

apart the drains should be. (2) Take the necessary 
levels. (3) Lay off the lines of main and minor drains. 
(4) Make a map of the proposed work. To put straw, 
brush, or stones on the top of the tiles when placed in 
position in the drain, is bad practice. Fine earth should 
be closely packed on top of the tiles to cause the water 
to enter the drain at the bottom. The greater the 
quantity of soil that water has to percolate through 
before it enters the drain, the better is its opportunity 
to pass over to the safekeeping of the double 
silicates the plant food it holds in solution, Water 
from such drains, when caused to overflow a meadow 
that is itself well drained, will add little or no plant 
food to it. 

This was at first doubted, and a case has been cited 
v/here a meadow was overflowed with water from the 
drains of a field on a higher elevation, which was suffi- 
cient to keep up the power of the meadow to produce 
good crops of hay without its receiving any other 
fertilizer; but upon investigation it was discovered 
that some of the drains tapped springs at their 
source, and conducted the water directly to the 
meadow, which gave up the plant food it held in solu- 
tion to the soil it had to pass through. You will 
remember what we before told you that gome kinds of 
bright, sparkling, spring water hold the elements of 
plant food in solution in sufficient quantity to fertilize 
the land through which it percolates. The springs in 
this case were enriched with the inorganic substances 
of plant food, and thus fertilized the soil, which 
accounted for this drain water enriching the 
land. The surface flow of water from a fertile 
field which spreads over another field well drained 
will carry an ample supply of fertilizing substances to 
it, which will make it yield abundantly; but water, 



62 ELEMENTS OF 

after percolating tlirough a loaiii or clay loam soil into 
drains, is deprived of its fertilizing ingredients by the 
double silicates, and is thus rendered "worthless as a 
source of plant food. The surface flow of water from 
cultivated fields is the naaximum of evils to Amer- 
ican husbandry of the present day. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

ORGANIC CONSTITUENTS OF THE SOIL. 

We may now consider the organic constituents of the 
soil. The quantities existing in the soil differ consider- 
ably; but they are present in all good soils. 

If a portion of soil be burnt on an iron plate, a smoke 
will be produced from it; and if weighed before and 
after burning, we will find that it has lost weight by 
the burning. The loss represents the water dried 
out, and the organic matter burnt off. If we 
examine the new soil produced by the atmospheric 
agencies from the rocks, we shall find very little organic 
matter in it, and in some cases none. The fact is, that 
only the lower orders of vegetation grow in it; 
but as these die, their remains mix with the soil in 
■which they grew. After this has been going on for 
successive years, the soil becomes somewhat enriched 
by the rem.ains, when it becomes fitted to produce plants 
of a higher order, and these add still more vegetable 
matter to the soil, so that it finally becomes mixed with 
a great deal of organic matter, which was produced 
upon its surface, and is thus prepared in a natural way 
for growing a crop. 

The term organic matter is generally applied to 
those portions of the soil Avhicli at some time or other 



SCIENTIFIC AKD PRACTICAL AGRICULTUEE. 63 

have been organized, and have performed functions 
of animal or vegetable life. Organic matter con- 
sists cliiefly of substances draAvn from the air, and the 
carbonic acid is the cliief contributor. As we carry 
on the ordinary processes of cultivation we increase the 
quantity of this organic matter. In fact, the general 
tendency of cultivation is in the direction of adding 
to the soil organic matter. 

Some crops are especially valuable, because of the 
organic matter they add to the soil, such as clover 
and green buckwheat, when plowed under. 

An ordinary observer, in looking at a grass sod, can 
see the numberless small roots with which the turf is 
so full, and the black color gives evidence to the expe- 
rienced eye of earlier supplies of rootlets which had 
decayed in the land. 

We shall now examine into the beneiits which the 
soil derives from this organic matter: (1) It has a 
tendency to give a freedom to the soil, which 
enables the roots to penetrate it in search of food. 
Stiff clays which, from the extreme fineness of their 
particles, have a tendency to become firm and com- 
pact, are greatly benefited by the intermixture. In 
the case of sands it discharges an equally useful 
duty. In these soils there is no difficulty of the root 
penetrating the land; but there is a want of firmness, 
and in such cases the increase of organic matter is very 
valuable; in short, in every kind of soil the intermix- 
ture of organic matter is beneficial — excepting peaty 
soils, of course. (2) It increases the power of any soil 
for absorbing moisture and gaseous matter 
from the air. Nor must we overlook the fact that such 
organic matter is one of the means whereby manure 
and plant food are held in the soil, particularly sandy 
soils, when the previous condition of the land would 



64 ELEMENTS OP 

have allowed it to be washed away and gone 
beyond tlie roots of tlie plants. 

It has become the practice with intelligent cultivators 
of the land, who have light soils having little power to 
hold the food in a soluble condition, to apply the farm- 
yard manure to the young clover, Avhich encour- 
ages a strong, rich growth, and thus it preserves the 
greatest portion of the plant food, which would other- 
wise have been washed away from the soil. Tlio great 
amount of rich clover roots which decays gradually 
during the growth of the following crop, yields up a 
large store of fertilizing matter, just as it is needed 
by the crop. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 



BAD CHARACTEES OF SOILS AKD HOW TO REMEDY 
THEM. 

We may now consider the characters of soils, to which 
we alluded in a former chapter. This is very impor- 
tant, because these characters of fields indicate certain 
opinions of intelligent practical farmers. We 
shall endeavor to show what the farmer means by say- 
ing that a certain field has a hungry soil. 

Because a particular field is always in want of nour- 
ishing materials, the farmer says of it that it is hungry. 
Sands and gravels belong to this class, because th<?y 
have little or no power in holding the soluble portions 
of the manure. They are generally known by an 
absence of the double silicates and ferric oxide, as well 
as having a small supply of organic matter; soils also 
whose surface is liable to be washed or floated away by 
every heavy shower are always in need of a supply of 
manure. 

The common mode of curing the disease in the sandy 
or gravelly soils is to add clay and encourage the 



SCIENTIFIC AND PHACKCAL AGRICULTUBE. 65 

accumulation of humus in them; and to cure 
the washing away of the surface soil, deep tillage 
and subsoil draining will reduce the surface flow to 
a minimum. Just in proportion as these means are 
applied, so will tlie land cease to have that character 
ajiplied to it. 

Another class of soils is knoAvn as tough and obsti- 
nate. This class is found to contain a large quantity 
of chiy; but in a, majority of cases it tlisphiys these 
points of character when under bad management. 
When individuals or animals have such an unfortunate 
character, skill in treating them so as not to arouse the 
bad propensities proves the master mind ; it is the 
same with the soil, because if treated witli skill it will 
be rendered yielding and kindly. If a farmer unskilled 
in the management of a clay soil ploughs it in the 
spring, in preparation for a crop, it is likely to become 
cloddy, tough, and obstinate, and to need a great 
amount of labor to reduce it to a fitting condition for a 
good seed bed. If, on the other hand, such a soil had 
been well drained, and ploughed up in the fall, and 
exposed to the influences of air, water, and frost, we 
would see a kindly, mellow soil, in the very best 
condition for a seed bed. This condition is infinitely 
better and more complete than any state we could bring 
it to, by any amount of manual or horse labor, when 
treated to spring ploughing. 

Just in proportion as the farmer has more organic 
matter mingled through such a soil, and timely culti- 
vation given, so will it be cured of those bad points of 
character, and shoAv less temper in its management. 

We have also kindly and grateful soils, yielding 
good and abundant returns for labor and manure intel- 
ligently applied. As a rule, these are loamy soils, 
having sufficient sand and organic matter in them, well 
mixed, to enable them to be worked easily, and having 



66 ELEMENTS OF 

sufficient clay to preserve and hold in readiness the 
plant-food derived from the manure they receive. 
These are the most pleasant soils to manage. 

Next comes the invalid or sick soil. It is with 
soils as with individuals; there are many causes 
for hcing in an nnhcaliliy condition. Soils generally 
become sick either from the presence of some objec- 
tionable matter in the soil, or something is absent 
which the plant wants. Drainage and deep autumn 
cultivation will generally meet the difficulties of the 
first case; in the other class, we have seen in a former 
chapter that if the plant has not all the materials it 
requires, it shows it hy a sickly appearance. The bill 
of fare of a plant is very long; and, like the weaver 
working on a fsibric requiring many colors, if he rung 
short of one color, the whole work is stopped; if he 
wants a red-colored yarn, and has all the other 
colors in abundance, the work is at a standstill, and 
cannot proceed until tlio proper color is supplied; so 
with the plant, if one of the dishes named on its bill of 
fare is wanting, it makes no difference how much of 
the others it may have, it cannot proceed in its 
growth. Hence that law of agricultural science 
which tella us that it is those portions of the plant 
food which are least abundant in the soil, which 
measure its fertility, and not those portions Avhich 
are most abundant. Like a chain, it is the weak link 
which measures its entire strength. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



ANALYSES OF FIVE DIFFERENT KIXDS OF SOILS. 

The soil may be regarded as a mixture of many 
different substances, each having its own peculiar prop- 



Scientific akc peactical ageicultuke. 67 



erties, and each giving its own influence to determine 
the general character of the soil. These substances 
were obtained from different sources, and are frequently 
mixed in very irregular proportions; for these reasons 
Ave must depend upon the chemist to separate the 
several substances which compose it, and determine 
their respective quantities and their condition. In this 
way we may learn what materials are in the soil, and 
thus find out its capabilities. 

The following table represents the chemical analyses 
of five different kinds of soils. The Avord "trace" 
means that so small a quantity of the ingredient was 
found that it could not be weighed by the chemists who 
performed the analyses: 





Fertile 
Soli. 


Barren 

Soil. 


Rich 
Clay. 


Good 
Loam. 


Calca- 
reous. 


Potash 


. 1.03 


Trace. 


2.80 


.80 




Soda 


. 1.97 


Trace. 


1.44 


1.50 




Ammonia 


. .00 










Lime 


. 4.09 


Trace. 


.83 


1.28 


52.33 


Magnesia 


. .13 


Trace. 


1.02 


1.12] 




Peroxide of Iron 


. .35 1 

. 9.04 J 


2.00 


4.87 


3.41 I 


2. 80 


Protoxide of Maganese 




Protoxide of Iron 


. .29 


Trace. 


2.80 


..80 






. 1.3G 

. .47 


.50 
Trace. 


14.04 
..24 


3.58 
.38 




Phosphoric Acid 


Trace. 


Sulphuric Acid 


, .90 


Trace. 


.09 


.09 


Trace. 


Carbonic Acid , 


. G.08 
. 1.24 
. 2.34 

.57.05 


.01 
90.00 


.01 
01.20 \ 


.92 

Trace. 

81.2G 1 


44.70 


Chlorine 




Soluble Silica 




Insoluble Silica , 




Insoluble Silica (sand), 


.20 


Organic matter 


.12.00 


1.50 


8.55 


2.43 




Water or loss 


. 1.00 




4.91 


3.27 





It Avill be noticed that the list of substances found in 
soils is greater than those found ia the primi- 
tive rocks; but Ave must remember the fact, that, in 



68 ELEMENTS OF 

addition to the rocks, the atmosphere and the sea 
contributed in course of time to the soil, and in this, 
they -were assisted by the operations of animal and 
vegetable life. 

You will notice the great amount of silica in all the 
soils, except the calcareous, but especially in the 
barren one. Silica may be looked upon as forming 
the main bulk of all sandy, loamy, and clay soils, to 
which the potash, soda, etc., give fertility. Phosphoric 
acid, like silica, is a weak acid at low temperatures; 
but when heated it bcconies exceedingly powerful. It 
rarely amounts to more than .5 per cent, of our 
richest soils, and many fertile soils contain a much 
smaller supply. Its value as a constituent of good 
soils has long been acknoAvledged, and all our cultivated 
plants require a supply. It looks as if it Avcre a 
provision of nature to enable our crops to be of proper 
feeding value in the support of animal life; for the 
plant makes as powerful a claim on the soil for phos- 
phoric acid as the animal does on the plant for this 
material, which is a necessity to it for the formation 
of bone. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



DOUBLE SILICATES AND THEIK VALUE IN THE SOIL. 

In the above analyses silica and alumina are given 
separately; but in the soil a part of the silica is com- 
bined chemically with a part of the alumina, formiug 
a silicate of alumina. This substance is the essential 
ingredient in pure clay — such as the fine white clay 
used by the potters in making china. Alumina does 
not enter the plant at all. You will discover that it is 
the only substance given in the analyses of the soils 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 69 

which does not occur in the ash of plants. Although 
alumina thus remuins outside the plant, yet it is found 
to serve a very useful purpose by acting as a kind of 
v/aiter, holding tlie plant food in readiness for the use 
of the plant. It does this by combining with silica, 
and at the same time with some other substance of 
phmt food, forming what is called by chemists double 
silicates. 

The cliief double silicates are these: 

Silicate of alumina and soda. 
Silicate of alumina and lime. 
Silicate of alumina and potash. 
Silicate of alumina and ammonia. 

It is found that the silicate of alumina combines more 
readily with ammonia than any of the other change- 
able components, the next favorite being potash, then 
lime, and lastly soda. Therefore, if a silicate of 
alumina and soda meets in the soil with lime, the soda 
is given up, and the lime takes its place. In the same 
way, lime is rejected for potash, and potash given up for 
the greatest favorite, ammonia. 

Now, ammonia is the most useful to plants, potash 
next, lime next, and soda the least of all. 

The great use of the double silicates in the soil, there- 
fore, is their power of receiving and holding in chem- 
ical union ingredients from the air and the decaying 
organic substances, the most valuable kind of 
plant food, which they give up to the plant when 
required. The roots of plants have a greater con- 
trol over the changeable components of the double 
silicates than the silicate of alumina has itself; so that 
they are able to take from it the materials they require, 
and the silicate of alumina then seeks some more of 
that valuable plant food, ammonia, potash, etc., which 



70 ELEMENTS 01* 

the phint utilizes again when it needs it. This action 
of th9 double silicates we shall find to be of great 
ini])()rtuneo "when we come to consider the action of 
manures. 

CHAPTER XXX. 

TILLAGE AND ITS BENEFITS TO THE SOIL. 

The successful growth of crops depends upon the 
soil containing a sufficient supply of plant food in a 
soluble condition; we have shown you that a soil 
may be unproductive even if it has plenty of plant food, 
by that food being in a dormant condition, or some 
poisonous substance being present. 

That the soil be suitable to the crop, is one of 
the chief conditions of success. The farmer has no 
power over the climate, but he can choose such 
crops as he finds most suitable for it. Thus, some 
kinds of wheat grow best in the North, others best in 
the Middle or Southern States; also, some kinds of corn 
are suited for a short season, and others for a longer 
season, and so on. 

But, granting the plant food in any soil to be suffi- 
cient, injurious matters absent, and the climate suitable, 
we yet require a proper tillage of the soil to develop 
its capabilities, and to make tlie most of all these con- 
ditions, so as to produce the greatest yield of 
crops at the least expense, and yet leave the land 
in as good, or better, condition for the next crop. 

Baron Liebig compares tlie work performed by the 
plow to the mastication of food by those special 
organs Avith which nature has endowed animals. The 
comparison is most felicitous, and conveys the true idea 
clearly. We all know that food, unless it be well mas- 
ticated, or ground down by the teeth, or other means, 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTUEE. 71 

gives lip very little nourishment to the body; so it is 
with the soil, unless it be well broken down, thoroughly 
pulverized, and well mixed, the plant will not be 
fully sustained. 

The natural agencies are always ready to assist. 
Weather — including frost, snow, and rain — is of prime 
imj)ortance. Rain is absolutely necessary to supply the 
water which enters so largely into the growing plant, 
and into which the plant food is dissolved. Without 
rain a country becomes a desert, unless water is 
brought from a distance and spread over the land by 
overflow, as in the basin of the Nile, or by artificial 
irrigation. 

In the winter the rain takes the form of snow, and is 
then useful as a covering for young plants. Frost, also, 
is a great friend to cultivation by its acting upon 
the moisture in the soil, bursting asunder the tough 
clay, and exposing immense surfaces to the action of 
the air. 

Ammonia consists of nitrogen and hydrogen chem- 
ically united, and exists in the air. You will remember 
that plants cannot absorb nitrogen from the air, 
although four-fifths of the air consists of this gas; to 
be of use to the plant it must be united with other 
elements, as in ammonia and nitric acid. The 
flashes of lightning cause the nitrogen of the air to 
unite with the oxygen aud form the nitric acid, which 
is washed down into the soil by the rain. 

Another friend of the farmer is the common earth- 
worm. This worm lives by swalloAving earth contain- 
ing vegetable matter, from which its digestive organs 
extract nourishment; the soil it then brings up and 
casts out in a finely divided state. Darwin calculated 
that in many places more than ten tons of earth 
on every acre of ground pass annually through their 



73 ELEMENTS OF 

bodies, and arc thus brought to the surface. The worm- 
burrows, too, which are often five to six feet dec}), assist 
in draining tlie soil, and form passages into which the 
air and roots of plants can enter. 

Spade cultivation niay be set down as the 
model, to which we may strive to attain, as near as 
possible, by such means as are within our command. 
The advantage of this cultivation is the greater 
extent of feeding ground for the crop withmit ex- 
tending the boundary lines, and likewise the 
easier search for food. We must do our best to reach 
these ends; but it is hardly possible, with our present 
appliances, to come up to the efficiency of the spade. 
Steam cultivation is a very valuable agency in this 
direction, and, when used in the fall of the year, it goes 
far towards giving the land that thorough working 
which the spade accomplishes. The steam plow turns 
a furrow twelve to fifteen inches deep, and twelve acres 
a day, in the tough clay soil of Scotland. •The work of 
the steam plow in the large prairie fields of the Western 
or prairie States would be of incalculable benefit to the 
tillers of that soil. In addition to the Avork being better 
done by a deeper tillage, causing better drainage, 
increasing the feeding ground, and enabling crops to 
better withstand the drought, as well as a prolonged and 
steady growth by the deep anchorage, and a gradual 
perfecting of the crop instead of a hasty mushroom 
growth, the relief to men and horses, who are required 
to toil to exhaustion in the hottest season of the year, 
plowing and harrowing for the winter wheat, would far 
exceed the cost. It is no wonder that farmers become 
prematurely old, when their toil so frequently brings 
them to the verge of exhaustion, and for all their toil 
getting unsatisfactory returns. Tlie inventors of the 
reaping and binding machine conferred a great boon to 



SCIEiTTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 73 

the farmers of the broad prairies by making it possible for 
them to care for a hirge extent of wheat at the mini- 
mum of cost. In like manner, the inventor of a 
gteam plow, ^yhich will be as practically useful, will be 
entitled to the warmest gratitude of farmers — especially 
the prairie farmers^ whose soil is peculiarly adapted by 
its nature to be benefited exceedingly by it. 

We hope, before the end of the present decade, that 
a steam plow will be a familiar sight in the Valley of 
the Mississippi. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE WORK OF THE PLOW AND PLOW-PANS. 

One of the foundation stones upon which a good 
tillage of the soil must rest is a thoroughly com- 
plete fall cultivation. A satisfactory cleaning of 
the land, and the judicious deepening of the 
soil before winter, will greatly favor an increased 
production, and assist in rendering the work more 
economical, and the soil more easily prepared for a 
good seed-bed. 

Various kinds of plows are made to which horse- 
power is applied. In ancient times the plow was simply 
a pointed and forked piece of a tree, and this was 
dragged through the soil. After a time, the point 
entering the ground was shod with iron to give it a 
greater poAver of endurance; then the whole point was 
made of iron, and a "mould board" was added, of such 
a shape as to receive the layer of soil under which the 
point has entered, and to raise and turn it to one side. 

The plow has been improved in strength and design, 
so that a very high standard of every quality is reached! 
The plow of the present day represents the thoughts of 
generations of intelligent plowmen. 



74: ELEMENTS OF 

With the plows adapted to horse-power wo go about 
five inches deep, and throw the soil in ridges, so as to 
expose as much surface to tlie weather as possible. By 
continually ploAving in this manner, and to tliis depth — 
the horses and men walking along the farrow, and the 
sole of the plow sliding and pressing down the subsoil— 
that soil is often squeezed and hardened into a dense 
layer, through which the roots of plants can pass with 
difficulty, and sometimes not at all, and through which 
the water cannot penetrate, and of course stagnates. 
There is too much of this pan now in the prairies. 
This hard layer is called a "plow-pan." To break 
up this pan, and stir the subsoil, and make a way out 
for the water, another kind of plow is used to follow 
the ordinary one, called a subsoil plow, Avhich breaks 
and stirs up the subsoil without bringing it up to 
the top. 

Some Scotch farmers use one of their old plows for 
this purpose; the mould-board is taken off, and the 
"shear" well pointed; in this condition it is found to 
make a very satisfactory subsoil plow. Another 1)1oav 
for breaking up the "pan" is sometimes used; it is 
made like the ordinary plow, but stronger, and going 
much deeper, and brings up the subsoil to the surface; 
but in this case so much power is needed to break, lift 
up, and turn over this great depth of soil that steam 
power must be employed to draw it. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



OTHER "pans" and SUBSOIL PLOWING. 

Pans may be due to other causes besides constant 
surface plowing. In some districts, especially where 
the soil is formed from the breaking down of the red 



SCIE^STTIFIC A]t!tD PRACTICAL AGEICULTURE. 76 

sandstone whicli contains a large quantity of iron 
oxide. As this gets washed into the soil it forms a kind 
of cement, binding the materials together into a hard 
cake, which is called an iron pan. The cementing 
power of iron rust is very great, as may be satisfac- 
torily proved in old roads in the neighborhood of 
abandoned iron furnaces, where iron ore has been 
hauled in carts; the particles of ore sifting through the 
openings of the carts, and mixing with other substances, 
it incorporates the whole in one mass. 

There is a complete illustration of this cementing 
power of iron particles in an old. wagon road in the 
neighborhood of the Mt. Savage furnaces, now for 
several years unused, where a cake is formed as solid 
looking as pig-iron, but light in weight in proportion 
to its size; thus showing how small a quantity of iron 
oxide is necessary to form a "pan." 

In other soils where there is much lime naturally, 
or where lime has been put on the land too freely, 
it has sunk into the soil as far as it has been stirred, 
and there formed a hardened cake, called a lime pan. 

In all these cases the use of the subsoil plow comes 
in place to break up the pan and open up the subsoil. 
But in all soils, Avhether a pan is formed or not, the 
occasional use of the subsoil plow for stirring 
up the underlying earth is beneficial, as it then admits 
air, and allows the deep roots to penetrate the subsoil 
to obtain nourishment, which is one of the objective 
points of good cultivation. 



76 ELEMEJS'TS OF 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THE USES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF AGRICULTURAL 
IMPLEMENTS. 

In addition to the plow, trie chief implements used 
in cultivation are the cultivator, the hoe, the 
harrow, and roller. These are used principally for 
clearing the land of weeds, and for preparing the sur- 
face for receiving the seed. 

The cultivator consists of several tines slanting down- 
ward and forward. These, when drawn through the 
soil, help to turn over and break down the clods, and 
draw out the weeds to the surface. 

Various kinds of hoes and harrows are used for 
turning over and breaking down clods, dragging out 
weeds, and covering seeds that have been sown. The 
hoe is chiefly used for clearing the land of weeds, or for 
ridging up the soil around the roots of some crops, such 
as corn and potatoes. Sometimes this is done by hand, 
as with a garden hoe, but when the crop is large, and 
sown in regular rows, the horse-hoe is used. This is 
drawn between the rows by a horse, and generally con- 
sists of several blades, fixed in a frame at the proper 
distances apart, so as to throw up the soil against the 
plants on each side, and at the game time cut off or 
root up the weeds in the spaces betvreen the rows. 

Harrows are made of various eizea and patterns. 
Heavy harrows, or drags, are used for turning over aiul 
breaking the clods on plowed land, or for stirring land 
which has been lying fallow. Lighter harrows are used 
for bringing weeds to the surface and collecting them; 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGKICULTURE. 7*7 

and lighter ones still, made of chain work, are used for 
covering seeds which have just been sown, and for 
lightly stirring among grass and young wheat or oats. 

The roller is principally used for pressing the soil 
around the seeds or young plants, so as to keep them 
moist, and enable the fine roots to take hold of the soil. 

A rough kind of roller, with projecting points and 
notches, called a clod crusher, is sometimes used to 
break down the hard lumps of soil, so as to expose a 
greater surface to the atmosphere. 

There is yet another clod-crusher, which is considered 
by many the most perfect form of all. It consists of a 
series of wheels, alongside each other, each having an 
independent action. It is very heavy, and was designed 
to grind and crush up intractable clods, and reduce 
heavy clay to a fine tilth. They are, however, of equal, 
if not greater, value as compressors of light soils, before 
wheat sowing, to roll winter crops in the spring, and 
consolidate the land where the crops are attacked by 
the wire-worm. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



PREPARATION OP THE SEED-BED AND SEED SOWING. 

Our next important subject is the preparation of the 
land to form a suitable seed-bed, in which the seeds 
will have the best chances of procuring moisture, 
warmth, and air, which are so necessary for their growths 
The preparation of the seed-bed will vary with the 
nature of the soil, and with the size and character* 
of the seed. But there are some points which must 
always be carefully attended to. In the first place, it is 
necessary to procure plenty of room for the roots of 
the plants to reach downward into the soil. By deep 



78 ELtiMENiS OF 

plowing and the use of the subsoil plow, especially in 
clay soils, the soil is loosened to a good depth and the 
roots enabled to penetrate it in search of food. 

Tlie roots of winter wheat have been traced to a 
depth of seven feet in a loose soil forty-seven days after 
sowing. 

For securing germination in its healthiest form, the 
regular admission of moisture into the seed is a 
matter of the utmost importance. Special provision 
has been made for carrying this moisture into and 
througliout the seed. We find a series of irrigating 
channels in the seed used for this purpose. Thus, 
water su2)plied to the surface of the seed does not 
simply moisten the surface, and so penetrate more and 
more deeply into the seed, but, under healthy conditions, 
the water is carried through the seed by those irri- 
gating channels, and thus a more equal distribution 
takes place — consequently a more uniform swelling of 
the seed. If the seed becomes "dirty," the entrance 
to those irrigating channels are largely closed up, 
and, as a consequence, an irregular distribution of mois- 
ture, resulting in an irregular germination and a weak 
and sickly plant. 

The next point of consideration is the depth to which 
the seed should be sown; tliis depends upon the supply 
of air and moisture. If the seed lies too far below the 
surface of the soil it might be kept moist enough, but 
it Avill not obtain sufficient air to supply it with the 
oxygen it requires. Again, upon tlie other hand, if it 
is too near the surface, it may get alternately wet and 
dry with the rain and the sun. This prevents the steady 
growth of tlie plant, which injures its healthy develop- 
ment. Tlie farmer has to judge by the nature of the 
soil, and the climate, and size of seed, how deep 
he will place it. 



SCIEKTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGKICULTUEE. 79 

Then, again, it is necessary for the support of the 
young plants, or seedlings, that the soil should lie close 
around them, "without excluding the air from the 
roots. In some soils it is necessary to sow the seed 
immediately after plowing, and then to roll it at once, 
to press the earth close to the seeds ; in others it must 
be left two or three weeks for the moisture to rise to the 
surface, by capillary attraction, before the seeds are 
sown. 

Wheat requires a firm support around its young 
roots, and yet the soil must not be hard and close, or 
the roots Avill not bo able to grow into it freely in search 
of food. The best preparation for a seed-bed for wheat 
is to grow a crop of clover upon the land just 
before the wheat is sown. The reason for this will 
come up with the subject of rotation of crops. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



ELEMENTS OF THE BOIL EXPLAINED. 

Having treated of the cultivation and formation of 
the soil, the next subject which presents itself is the 
exhaustion of the soil ; but, in order to fully com- 
prehend this subject, we will take another chapter in 
chemistry. We wisli to impress upon your minds the 
important fact that chemical knowledge, to be useful, 
must be exact. You must endeavor to get a clear 
conception of the fiicts v,'6 are about to take up, and 
not pass them over till they are all thoroughly under- 
stood. 

It has been ascertained that the whole world, and all 
that is in it, as far as known^ is built up of about 
sixty- three elements, some of which exist in great 
abundance, and others are very rare and in small 
quantities 



80 ELEMEKTS 01" 

Some of tliesG elements exist in a free state, so that 
we can easily see them and handle them; while others 
are united with one or more other elements, and are 
then different in appearance, and even qualities, 
to the elements of which they are formed. 

Of the sixty-three known elements forty-eight are 
metals, such as gold, silver, copper, tin, and iron; and 
some are very rare, and unknown except to the chemist. 

The other fifteen elements are not metals, but act 
a more important part than the metals in the construc- 
tion of the earth and the sustaining of its inhabitants. 
Neither one of the two classes, however, could do much 
without the other. The list of the fourteen ele- 
ments given below are of importance to agriculture, 
with which we must become familiarly acquainted in 
order that we be exact in our knowledge. 

The non-metallic substances are oxygen, hydro- 
gen, carbon, and nitrogen, and are classed as organic 
elements; sulphur and phosphorus are classed as sec- 
ondary organic elements; also silicon and chlorine. 

The metals are: Potassium, sodium, calcium, mag- 
nesium, aluminium, and iron. 

The first four on the list are called the organic 
elements, because the softer and more important 
parts of plants and animals are made up of particular 
compounds of these elements, and can be made 
from no other. It is also true that these same elements 
enter into and make up a large part of tlie inorganic 
world, as stones and earth; so you see you must be 
careful not to be misled by the term organic. It means 
that animals and plants are dependent in an especial 
manner upon these elementary substances for the sup- 
port of their organized soft parts. 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTlTEE. 81 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



ORGANIC ELEMENTS. , 

Carbon forms tlie chief bulk of all plants. If yon 
burn a plant in a close vessel, admitting no oxygen, the 
blaek substance which remains is carbon, which is 
familiarly called charcoal. When oxygen is freely 
admitted to it, it combines with the carbon, and forms 
carbonic-acid gas. 

Oxygen, in its free state, is an invisible gas; it forms 
one-fifth of tlie bulk of the atmosphere, and, in a com- 
bined state, forms seven-eighths of the weight of water, 
and nearly half the substance of the whole sohd 
globe. It unites with nearly all the other elements to 
form oxides. 

Nitrogen, when free, is also an invisible gas, forming 
four-fifths of the bulk of the atmosphere; but its most 
beneficial service to agriculture is in combination with 
hydrogen in forming ammonia, and with other elements 
in the form of nitrates. 

Hydrogen, when free, is the lightest of all gases. 
Combined with oxygen it forms, by weight, one-eighth 
of water; and, when combined with nitrogen, it forms 
the valuable compound, ammonia. 

Sulphur and phosphorus are called secondary 
organic elements, because they are not used to so 
great an extent in building up the structures of animals 
and plants as the four elements before named. They 
enter also into the composition of many inorganic sub- 
stances, and form sulphates and phosphates. 

Silicon combines with oxygen to form silicates — the 
most plentiful constituent in all soils, except peat soils. 
Fine white sand, flint, and quartz are nearly pure silica. 



82 ELEMENTS OE 

Chlorine is a greenish, choking gas, when free; hut 
we generally find it comhined with sodium, which then 
forms common salt, which is found in all plants. 



CHAPTER XXXVIL 



THE METALLIC ELEMENTS. 

Ikon is probably the only well known metal named 
among the elements in the foregoing list. It is ahvays 
found in the bodies of animals and plants. 

Potassium is the metal contained in potash. 

Sodium is the metal contained in socla and com- 
mon Scllt. It looks almost impossible that a bright 
silvery metal can exist in the crystals of common 
salt or soda, or in white powdery chalk, and yet it is 
the fact. It is an easy matter for you to satisfy your- 
self. You may procure at a chemist's a piece of mag- 
nesium wire (about ten cents a foot); you Avill find it a 
dull whitish metal, but it is quite bright when newly 
made; it quickly attracts oxygen from the air, and 
becomes tarnished. Take one end with a pair of 
jiincers, and hold the other end in the flame of a lamp 
or gas burner, the metallic wire takes fire and burns 
with a brilliant light. The metal, magnesium, is 
now combined with the non-metallic gas, oxygen, and 
forms the compound magnesia, which falls down from 
the dazzling flame in the form of a white powder — the 
very same wdiich is used for medicine, under the name 
of calcined magnesia, which must contain the metal 
disguised in this curious form. 

Calcium is contained in lime. 

Magnesium is contained in magnesia and epsom salts. 

And aluminium is contained in alum and clay. 



BCIENTIFIG AND PEACTICAL AGKICULTUEE. 83 

It is wonderful to learn, also, tliat lime contains the 
silvery metal called calcium; and the dirty looking 
substance, clay, (when pure, however, it is white), 
contains the golden looking metal aluminium, used 
so much now in making watch-cases, chains, cheap 
jcAvelry, and mathematical instruments. 

From what we have now seen, you will readily under^ 
stand that some elements easily combine to form com- 
pounds. It is a strange fact that elements most 
unlike combine most readily, and that their con> 
pounds are very unlike any one of the elements from 
which they are formed, 



CHAPT ER X XXVIII. 

THE BINARY COMPOUNDS AND THE FORMATION OF 
THE SALTS. 

When two elements combine it is called a binary 
compound. These are very important to agriculture. 
They are generally divided into two groups — acid oxides 
and bases. Water lies between the two groups, and acts 
as an acid oxide to the bases, and as a base to the 
acid oxides. 

COMMON NAME. FORMED FROM. 

Carbonic Acid Carbon and Oxygen. 

Sulplnu-ic Acid Sulphur and Oxygen. 

Acid Oxides. -} Phosphoric Acid Phosphorus and Oxygen. 

Nitric Acid Nitrogen and Oxygen. 

Silica Silicon and Oxygen. 

Water Hydrogen and Oxygen, 

Ammonia Nitrogen and Hydrogen. 

Potash Potassium and Oxygen. 

Soda Sodium and Oxygen. 

Bases -j Lime Calcium and Oxygen, 

Magnesia Magnesium and Oxygen. 

Alumina Aluminium and Oxygen. 

Iron Oxide Iron and Oxygen. 



84 ELEMENTS OF 

An acid joined with n base forms a salt. For 
example, carbonic acid uilh the base, lime, forms the 
gait carbonate of lime; so, nitric acid combines with 
the potash to form nitrate of potash, commonly known 
as saltpetre, and so on. 

Wo will now take into consideration the most impor- 
tant salts of interest to tlio agriculturist; 

The chief of these are the carbonate of potash, 
forming the greater part of the ashes of burnt wood; 
the chloride of potash, which is the principal sub- 
stance in the manure called kainit; and nitrate of 
potash. 

Carbonate of soda occurs in the ash of many plants, 
and nitrate of soda is Chili saltpetre, often used for 
manure. The commonest soda salt is the chloride of 
sodium, or common salt. Unlike most salts, this is 
formed by the direct union of chlorine and sodium. 

When the carbonate of lime is roasted in a kiln, 
the carbonic acid is driven away, and lime only is left, 
which is called quick-lime; it is then very jwrous, and 
has a metallic ring. When water is poured on it a 
chemical action takes place by its combining with 
the lime; it then produces great heat, and forms the 
hydrate of lime, or slaked lime; but if it is left exposed 
to the air, the carbonic acid, which was driven from it, 
seeks to reunite, and brings it back to its original 
condition. Masons are Avell aware of this fact, us 
wlicn they slake the quick-lime they immediately cover 
it with sand to keep it from the air, or rather the car- 
bonic acid in the air. 

Another useful salt of lime is gypsum, which is a 
sulphate of lime. But the most important of all the 
salts is the phosphate of lime, because of its enter- 
ing so largely into the economy of both animal and 
vegetable life. 



SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGKICULTUllE. 85 

The silicates form iiu important class of salts, as it is 
principally by their aid that the crops are supplied with 
silica, as well as with the base with which the silica is 
combined. Thus the silicate of potash supplies both 
silica and potash; silicate of lime, both silica and lime, 
and so on. You may refer to what is said about the 
double silicates in a former chapter. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



THE ATMOSPHEEE. 

The atmosphere is so important to the growth of 
plants that it is necessary we should have a distinct 
knowledge of its nature and composition. The 
great bulk of the air consists of oxygen and nitro- 
gen, in the proportion of one of the former to four of 
the latter, only mixed, not chemically united. 

To give you a clear idea of what we mean by mixed, 
but not chemically united, let us take some lard and 
put a little water into it; we can so thoroughly mix 
them that it will be difficult to detect the water, but 
still the two substances are only mixed ; we will now 
put some potash into the mixture, and they become 
immediately united chemically. 

Of those two gases it is only the oxygen which is 
active, entering plants by their roots, and it is also 
combined with many other substances in the air and 
in the soil, where, you will remember, it is to be freely 
admitted, by means of deep plowing and drainage, to 
give it the opportunity of rendering poisonous matters 
nutritious by its action. It is found by careful inves- 
tigation, as we have before stated, that free nitrogen 
does not enter the plant at all ; and as nitrogen is 



86 ELEMEl^TS OF 

one of the necessary organic elements, the plant must 
obtain it in some otlicr way. 

The nitrogen in the air acts only as a regulator to 
the oxygen, preventing its too violent action. 

Besides the oxygen unci nitrogen, the air has always 
mixed Avitli it four substances, which are good 
friends of the farmer. These are watery vapor, 
nitric acid, carbonic acid, and ammonia. 
Although these exist in the air in very small quantities 
in proportion to tho general bulk, yet if wo take into 
consideration the vast extent of the atmosphere, we 
shall discover that there is really a large supply of 
these substances. The carbonic acid in the air is the 
great supply of carbon to the crops. 

The nitric acid and ammonia are washed down into 
the soil by the rain, and, as they are very soluble, they 
become at once suitable for the nourishment of the 
plant. The power of the soil to absorb ammonia 
(nitrogen and hydrogen) is not confined to periods of 
rain, is not even confined to the periodical recurrence 
of dews; so often as the air is charged with carbonate 
of ammonia, and comes in contact with a surfoce of 
soil, so often will this soil be enriched by ammonia to 
the extent to which the aii' contains it. For this reason 
the soil should be open, loose, and porous, so as to 
make it accessible to the feriform fertilizers. This 
explains why cultivating frequently between root and 
corn crops is so beneficial. It has been estimated that 
an acre of land receives in these ways every year about 
eighteen or nineteen pounds of nitrogen. The other 
ingredient found in the atmosphere is watery vapor. 
This is simply water in the form of an invisible steam 
or gas. It is of use to the crops when it descends in 
the form of rain or dew. 



BCIENTIFIC AIS'D mACTICAL AGKICULTURE. 87 



CHAPTER XL. 



THE DISSOLUTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 

When a plant or animal dies, tlie softer parts soon 
decay and separate into simpler chemical forms. • This 
dissolution is caused by the growth of tiny Hying 
things, the germs of which are always floating in the 
air, except in keen frosty weather, which, with the aid 
of oxygen, break wp the organic substances (which, we 
before learned, consist of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, 
and carbon,) into the simpler substances, water, car- 
bonic acid, and ammonia, each of which is only a 
binary-element compound. 

If the animal or plant decays in the air, these gases 
escape or fly away in the air, causing an ofiensive smell ; 
but if the decay takes place in the ground, the soil has 
the power of absorbing these gases. Clay soil has 
the greatest power of absorption, especially that portion 
of it which has taken the form of double silicates. 

On account of this peculiar property, dry pulverized 
clay is one of the very best disinfectants, and makes an 
excellent dressing for "angry" wounds, because of its 
jDOAver to absorb the corrupting matter, and render the 
sores calm and clean. 

The mineral or inorganic substances likewise fall to 
pieces in the soil, where they remain as carbonates, 
phosphates, and sulphates, ready to supply inorganic 
food to succeeding generations. 

Thus you will perceive the unceasing round of 
change going on in the air, in the soil, in plants, and 
in animals, which the intelligent cultivator will wisely 
consider and utilize whenever possible. 



88 ELEMENTS Of 

In soil Avliore there is a good portion of liunius, it 
iibounds with life. Many living creatures can be seen 
■with the naked eye, but many more are revealed by the 
aid of tlie microscope. Crubs of insects feed upon roots 
of vegetables left in the soil, and they change their food 
into ammonia, and carbonic acid, and "water, ■which is 
taken up by the soil. Some grubs, however, attack 
gro^wing crops, and are, consequently, hurtful to them; 
but most of tlio grubs do more good tlian harm. 

Gro-wing plants "which produce real flowerS and 
seeds, cannot feed upon decaying matter 
directly; it must be changed into carbonic acid, 
nitrates, and ammonia before they will accept it as 
food. There is, however, a set of plants called fungi, 
but which are sporatic, belonging to the mushroom or 
toad-stool family, which possess the power of feeding 
upon vegetable matter directly, like animals. They 
exist in the soil, and are friendly helpers in preparing 
food for the higher classes of plants. In the days of 
witches, "fairy rings," which abound in old pastures, 
were an object of superstitious awe, and were long a 
puzzle to scientists; but the mystery was at length 
solved; they were found to be caused by fungi, which, 
commencing to grow in one spot, converted the humus 
into nitrates, causing the grass to grow in that spot 
a dark green tuft. The fungi spread out from that 
centre, continuing their work in a circle, thus feeding 
a small ring of grass, which grows greener than the 
rest; and so tlie "fairy rings" extend, growing larger 
and larger. 

For the best conditions of forwarding these chemical 
changes in the soil, so that the farmer may be benefited 
by them, four things are absolutely necessary: (1) The 
presence of oxygen. Here v.'e see the reason for deep 
cultivation and drainage, (stagnant water will never do), 



SCIEKTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 89 

by wliicli the air, with its oxygen, can enter. (2) Mois- 
ture in moderate quantity must be present, such as is 
obtained by capillary attraction, as in a flower-pot. 
(3) Warmth, for the purpose of oxidation, wliicli is 
more active in summer than in winter. (4) The pres- 
ence of some base in the soil to unite with the oxygen 
to form nitrates. The best substance for this purpose 
is the carbonate of lime; the base, lime, unites with the 
nitrogen to form nitrates of lime. The lime is next dis- 
carded, and potash preferred, which then forms nitrate 
of potash, which, you remember, is very useful for the 
growth of tlie crops. 



CHAPTER XLI. 



THE CAUSES AXD REMEDIES OF EXHAUSTION OF THE 
SOIL. 

In this elementary work we first considered the 
structure of the plant, and the manner in which it 
takes its food; we next took up the formation of the 
soil, and saw from Avhence it came; also its physical and 
chemical composition, from which much of the plant 
food is derived; next the best methods of cultivating 
that soil, so as to get the food ready for the use of the 
crops in sufficient quantity to sustain them to their 
full maturity; and next tlie chemical properties of 
substances. 

AVe are now prepared to consider the exhaustion 
of the soil, and the best remedies for that exhaustion. 
When 51 soil has been cropped until one of tlie sub- 
stances of plant-food has been used up, so that it con- 
tains no more in a condition to be acceptable to the 
plant, we say the land is exhausted. 



S6 ELEMENTS OF 

AVe have already seen that the whole of the plant 
food in the soil is never in a condition to he 
acceptahlc to vegetation. The soluble parts only are 
suitable for plant food, and that portion only forms a 
very small part of the soil. The rest of the soil may 
contain a large quantity of these substances, but they 
are held in reserve, to be called into active duty, by the 
action of the oxygen and carbonic acid of the air. 
The awakening takes time; therefore the necessity and 
advantage of turning over the soil as much as possible, 
and as long a time as possible, before the crops require 
the food, so as to give the air time and opportunity to 
act upon the dormant portion to make it soluble, and 
consequently available for the plants. Should it happen 
that this opportunity is not allowed, or perhaps neg- 
lected, it may occur that one crop will use up nearly all 
the active matter of one particular kind, so that the next 
crop can only get a jiartial supply — that crop will suffer 
because the land is exhausted. You must note, how- 
ever, that an exhausted soil may be quite a good 
one, if it only has the opportunity to recover itself, 
and also given time to change its sleeping matter into 
an active condition by the friendly helpers in the air. 
Some soils, however, are so deficient in some of the 
elements of plant food, that even if all the food in 
them was brought into an active condition, it would 
last but a short time, and the land would then be 
thoroughly exhausted, and could again be rendered 
fertile only by a supply of the substances it had lost. 

In some portions of the Southern States the soil has 
been so long cultivated with one or two kinds of 
crops — as much as possible of cotton or tobacco being 
taken, and little or nothing put in — that large tracts 
of land have been exhausted and abandoned. 



SCIENTIFIC ANt) PRA(3TICAL AGEICULTURE. 91 

So, also, in tlie Northern States, immense crops of 
corn, wheat, and oats were grown by the first settlers, 
year after year, until the land wonld no longer produce 
these crops in paying quantities. These settlers moved 
farther West, and cultivated new soil, which in time 
became exhausted, and was abandoned in its turn. But 
this is very wasteful, and cannot long continue. 

Before we go on to state how fertility can be restored 
to the exhausted soil, we must inquire what sub- 
stances, and how much of each, have been taken 
from the land by the crops which have been grown 
upon it. 



CHAPTER XLIL 



SUBSTANCES USED BY VEGETATION. 

We learned in a former chapter, that the organic 
substances were those forming the softer parts, and the 
inorganic substances were those contained in the ashes 
left behind when the plant was burned. You had 
better now refer to them and commit them to memory. 

It has been found by careful experiment, that of the 
inorganic substances named there, that some are not 
absolutely needed for every kind of plant; yet they are 
always found in plants when grown in a natural way. 
It IS, therefore, safe to say, that they are beneficial to 
their healthy and complete growth. 

In the forest planted by nature there is no exhaustion ; 
neither is there any exhaustion in an uncultivated 
prairie; for as the trees and plants decay, their branches 
and leaves go back to the soil, and return to it the 
same substances taken from it by their growth, in addi- 
tion to the carbonic acid and ammonia which they had 
collected from the atmosphere. The long roots bring 



92 ELEMENTS OF 

up nourishment also from the subsoil, which they 
leave in the form of decaying matter, or humus, on the 
surface soil, and must, for this reason, become richer for 
their growth. Even if a large portion of the growth is 
eaten by Avild animals, it is only laid up for a time in 
their bodies, to be given up again to the earth when 
they die. 

But it is a very different case when w^ grow great 
quantities of corn, wheat, cotton, or tobacco, and carry 
it away for human use. In this case the inorganic 
matters are carried away entirely from the land from 
which it was derived. Even should it be a grass field, 
in which cattle or sheep have been turned to graze, 
though they give back some of the mineral matters in 
their droppings to the soil, yet their bodies, which have 
been built up by the grass they have eaten, are .at last 
taken away to be consumed elsewhere. 

You can easily understand now, that if crops are 
constantly drawn from the soil, to be used by 
men and animals elsewhere, the materials of plant 
growth will be carried away little by little, until one or 
more of them, which is especially wanted by the crop> 
gives out, and the soil is thus exhausted. It is the 
ingredient which is least abundant that determines the 
fertility of the soil, as before remarked; it is the weak 
link in a chain that determines its entire strength. 

Exhaustion may be delayed for a long time by 
returning to the soil as great a quantity as possible of 
the plants grown upon it. To sell milk, cheese, 
beef, straw, or hay from the laud will surely 
impoverish it, because of the mineral ingredients they 
contain, as may bo determined by the amount of residue 
shown when they arc burned; but if yon sell butter 
or fat, and keep all the rest on the farm, your land 
Avill get better; because if you burn butter or fat, yon 



feCIEHTIFrd AND PKACTICAL AGEICULTtJKE. 93 

will find no'resiclue; from which fact we ascertain that 
their constituents came from the air, and not from 
the soil. 

CHAPTER XLIII. 



SUBSTANCES EXTRACTED FROM THE SOIL BY DIFFEEENT 
CROPS. 

The substances taken from the soil differ greatly in 
quantity. One kind of crop takes proportionately a 
great deal of potash, as turnips; another very much 
lime, as clover; a third, much silica, as wheat. 
Each crop has its own pattern, so to speak, which 
requires a special set of substances to complete its 
construction. 

To enable you to have a clear conception of the 
ingredients, and the quantities of each kind required, 
we shall give you a table, prepared by several eminent 
chemists, which will be quite instructive upon this 
important topic: 

IXORGAXIC MATTER TAKEN FROM AN ACRE OP LAND BY A CROP 
OP GRAIN, ROOTS, AND CLOVER. 

WHEAT. Straw. Tuhnips. Clover Hay. 

25 Bushels 3,000 Lbs. 20 Tons 6 Tons 2 Tons. 

Grain. Bulbs. Tops. 

Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. 

Potash 7.49 18.21 125.73 75.95 52. 

Sotla 97 .90 22.98 16.23 7. 

Magnesia 3.07 4.11 12.27 9.27 35. 

Lime 85 9.34 37.87 69.81 111. 

Phosphoric Acid. 11.87 8.15 31.11 27.87 20. 

Sulphuric Acid.. .08 5.82 42.26 86.56 13. 

Silica 84 101.82 11.64 2.58 10. 

Peroxide of Iron. .20 1.23 3.71 2.58 3. 

Common Salt 03 .33 28.69 88.15 8. 

Carbonic Acid 21.71 21. 

Total 25. 150. 340, 300. 359. 



94 ELEMENTS OF 

If a crop is larger or smaller, tlie number of poiiiKls 
will vary in proportion to the quantity protluced. This 
table, however, gives us a very good idea of the quanti- 
ties of tlie different materials which are drawn 
from the soil. Wc see that turnips require much more 
inorganic matter than clover, and that clover requires 
more than wheat; we see, also, that all the different 
kinds of crops require nearly an equal share of phos- 
phoric acid. 

The other cereals, such as oats, rye, and corn, resem- 
ble A\ lieat closely in requiring nearly similar quantities 
of inorganic substances. 

All the leguminous or pod-bearing plants, such as 
beans, peas, and vetches, resemble clover, in requiring a 
large proportion of lime and magnesia. 

The analysis of turnips may also be taken to repre- 
sent the root crops, including mangels and potatoes, 
although these belong to a different order of plants. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 



EEMEDIES FOR EXHAUSTION, 

We have now seen that each kind of crop draws upon 
the soil for its own particular kinds of food, and in 
different quantities. It will be evident, then, that if 
wc grow the same kind of crop in succession for a 
number of years in the same soil, some of its soluble 
substances will ultimately become scarce, and the 
land becomes exhausted. But besides the mineral mat- 
ters, plants also depend upon the soil for a good deal of 
their nitrogen. This very important element is 
carried down into tlie soil by the rain in the form of 
ammonia and nitric acid; but a store of nitrogen is in 



SOIEN'TIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 95 

all fertile soils, contained in the dead roots of 
former plants, and in the decaying vegetable matter, 
or liumus, which gives the dark color to the soil. The 
nitrogenons portion of the hnmus, like the inorganic 
matters, are liable to be exhausted by the continual 
cropping of the same kind of plants on the soil. 

We have now come to the very important subjects: 
The remedies for the exhaustion of the soil, and how 
to prevent it. 

There are three ways by which these ends can be 
attained: (1) By giving the land rest. (2) By a 
change of crops. (3) By the use of manures. 

Fallow is a very old Saxon word, whose prime 
meaning is pale yellow or reddish yellow, and is applied 
to lands plowed, not for the purpose of raising a 
crop, but preventing the growth of any plants what- 
ever, thus keeping the color of the field a pale or 
reddish yellow, and not green with crops. 
The land is then said to rest. The atmosphere during 
this rest has time to act upon the soil, if we let it; 
the rain, and snow, and frosts of winter break down and 
crumble the hard particles of soil, which affords the 
oxygen and carbonic acid an opportunity to work upon 
the dormant matters, and bring them into an active or 
soluble state, and a ncAV supply of potash and other 
food will be got ready for the crop when the time of rest 
is over. 

It is very important that the soil be kept open 
during the period of rest; for this purpose it should be 
occasionally plowed, harroAved, and Avorked over by the 
cultivator to keep open the soil to the air and to pre- 
vent the growth of weeds, which are sure to spring up 
from seeds already in the soil, or carried there by the 
wind. These weeds would feed upon the prepared 
food, and would produce large quantities of seed, which 



96 ELEMENTS OF 

would give the former no end of trouble for years. For 
falloAV, then, to do its very best, the land must bo kept, 
as its name indicates, reddish yellow, and not 
green with plants of any kind. 

An agricultural chemist found that after a crop of 
beans there was in the soil 19 J pounds of nitrogen per 
acre; but after the same field had been fallow, the next 
year it contained 48 J pounds per acre. Another field, 
which had been sown v/itli wheat, without manure, 
contained, when the wheat had been removed, 2 J pounds 
of nitrogen per acre; after a year's bare fallow, it con- 
tained 33 J pounds to the acre. The great danger to a 
bare fallow, especially on light soils, is that these 
nitrates and other soluble food would be washed 
away, the sandy soil not having the double silicates 
to take up and hold in store the soluble plant food. 

The great danger to prairie and timber lands is the 
washing away of the surface soil into the rivers 
and creeks. Although the double silicates abound in 
these soils, yet, by the nearly impervious condition of 
the subsoil, the water is compelled to flow away from 
the surface, and carries with it the silicates and the 
fertilizing substances they contain, thus rendering the 
land unproductive. Drainage, to aerate, and allow the 
water to percolate through the soil and pass the fertil- 
izing matters over to the safe keeping of the silicates 
till needed by the plant, will give a high per cent, of 
profit to the farmer for his outlay. In order to reduce 
the dangers to light soils of a bare fallow to a mini- 
mum, fallow crops are grown, which take up this 
soluble food and make it into green fodder or roots, 
which are plowed in or eaten on the land. 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGBICULTUEE. 97 



CHAPTER XLV. 



FALLOW CROPS. 

The practice of giving the land rest is very old. We 
find the giving of the land rest enforced hy the laAV of 
Moses, which requires the land to rest every seventh 
year. 

Crops which are grown in rows wide apart, to permit 
the use of the one-horse plow, cultivator, and horse-hoe 
between the rows, are called fallow crops, because a 
great portion of the surface can be stirred and culti- 
vated, and cleared of weeds, and exposed to the atmos- 
phere almost as well as if no crop was grown upon it, 
and, at the same time, the soil is being profitably 
utilized by the growth of a supply of food, making a 
paying return. 

The United States has so many different kinds of 
soils and climates within its borders, that it is next to 
impossible to enumerate all the crops that may be 
useful as fallow crops. We shall attempt, however, to 
give a few which have come under our own observation. 
In the New England States, the Northern and North- 
western States, the principal fallow crops may be tur- 
nips, mangel-wurzel, or beets, potatoes, and corn. The 
farmer must be governed by the nature of the soil and 
climate which lie may use. The roots of these crops 
bring up plant food from the subsoil, o# their broad 
leaves gather in great stores of food from the air, and 
thus fresh humus is formed, containing nitrogenous 
matter, which is left in the ground for the next crop. 
In the Central States, including Southern Illinois, the 



98 ELEMENTS OF 

castor bean and corn make good fallow crops. The 
castor bean probably surpasses all others for this 
climate; it is a rank-growing, deep-rooted, and broad- 
leaved plant, and three-fourths of what is sold of this 
crop from the farm is oil, whose substances came from 
the air, and not from the soil. The land, by this crop, 
is enriched and left in prime condition for the profit- 
able growth of wheat or any of the cereals. 

For the Southern States cotton plants make a good 
fallow crop, and will not impoverish the land under a 
good system of cultivation. The cotton fiber, when 
burned, leaves proportionately a small residue, and the 
oil contained in the seed did not come from the land; 
therefore the soil will remain fertile if the cotton-seed 
cake is returned to it. The washing away of the 
surface soil from fallows, whether bare or cropped, may 
be set down as the prime cause of the farmer's diffi- 
culty in maintaining his land in a profitably fertile 
condition. Drainage, assisted by deep cultiva- 
tion, will reduce the difficulty to the minimum. 



CHAPTER XLVI. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 

We shall now consider the second Avay to prevent 
exhaustion of the soil. Farmers generally feel that 
they cannot let the land rest more than is absolutely 
necessary; therefore, instead of having the land fiillow, 
they make a Set of changes of crops, called a rotation, 
or round. 

You have learned that the different kinds of plants 
grown for a crop use the same substances, but they 
show a great variation in the quantity required by 



SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGRICULTUKE. 99 

each; therefore, if one kind of crop be grown on the 
same field for successive years, it is likely to use np one 
or more of the particular substances needed; the supply 
will, in consequence, become inadequate, and the crop 
then shows it by becoming yellowish, weak, and sickly. 
But if a different kind of crop be grown on the land, it 
may not require so much of that kind of food as the for- 
mer crop did, but draws a different set of substances, and 
thus gives time for the others to accumulate in the soil 
in a soluble condition, until the first crop comes round 
again, when it will find a supply of its food ready for 
its use. But a good farmer does not wait till his land 
becomes sick of a crop before he changes it; he gives 
a regular round, or succession, of crops to prevent this. 

The principle to be kept in view, in fixing on a rota- 
tion of crops, should be the succession which is best 
suited to draw from the soil the largest net return, 
while the capabilities of the land are at the same time 
maintained and increased. 

There is a rotation common in England called the 
Norfolk course, from which we may get some instruc- 
tion by investigating the reasons for its being a general 
favorite in many localities: 

First year Turnips. 

Second year Barley. 

Third year ..,...., Clover. 

Fourth year Wheat. 

Let us examine this course by the table given in a 
former chapter. Turnips take out of the soil large 
quantities of potash, soda, phosphoric acid, sulphuric 
acid, and chlorine. The second, barley is sown, which 
requires much less potash, soda, sulphuric acid, etc., 
but requires much more silica. The third year comes 
the clover, requiring a moderate amount of potash and 
sulphuric acid, very little silica and soda, but a large 



100 ELEMENTS OF 

supply of lime and magnesia. In the fonrtli year comes 
"wheat, requiring a large amount of silica, but a small 
portion of the other substances. By this time the soil 
has been able to recover itself; the potash and other 
substances required in large quantities by turnips have 
been rendered soluble, and have accumulated, and 
the land is again in order to begin the course anew. 

The rotation practiced by many intelligent farmers in 
the United States is: First year, clover; second year, 
wheat; third year, corn; and fourth year, oats; then 
comes clover again. 

The practical considerations in favor of a rotation of 
crops are the cleanliness of the land; the con- 
tinuous supply of food; the distribution of 
labor throughout the several seasons of the 
year; and the consolation, if one kind of crop fails, the 
farmer will not be in the "slough of despond." The 
adaptation of our farm products to the general wants 
of the people, as well as the varying climatic conditions, 
argue also in favor of a variety of crops. The alterna- 
tion of green crops and root crops with cereal crops 
may bo set down as an axiom of good and im- 
proved agriculture. 



CHAPTER XLVIL 



MANURES — THE GREAT REMEDY FOR EXSAUSTIQ]!?. 

We have now come to the great remedy for the 
exhaustion of the soil, brought about by any cause; it 
is the use of manure. 

The term tnanure, iii Its modern meaning, includes 
every substance^ whether of vegetable, animal, or min- 
eral origin^ Wliich, when applied to tiie soil, has the 



SCIEKTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 101 

effect of increasing its fertility. Its ancient meaning 
was: Worked over by hand. In this sense it 
was applied to the manual labor which made tlie land 
fertile. Shakespeare uses it with this meaning in 
"Othello" by the month of "lago," when speaking of a 
garden. He says: "Either to have it sterile with idle- 
ness, or manured with industry." 

There are three principal modes in which ma- 
nures act upon the soil so as to enable it to grow more 
and better plants. 

(1) They supply deficiencies in the soil, by giving 
to it substances which Avere wanting. 

(2) They act mechanically on the soil, by render- 
ing clay lands lighter and more open; or supplying 
sandy soils with humus, by giving it a closer body, thus 
enabling it to hold plant food, and encouraging 
capillary attraction. 

(3) Some act as a stimulant. They do this by 
causing the soil to give up for immediate use the 
reserve store of plant food, instead of adding 
more. They drive the soil to do more work in a given 
time, as a horse is driven by the spur. 

Some kinds of manures serve all three purposes; some 
two of the three, and others only one. The various 
manures used at the present day may be considered as 
belonging to the following classes : 

1. Green manures. 

3. Farm-yard manures. 

3. Calcareous manui'es 

4. Artificial manures. 

The term green manure is applied to the system of 
growing a crop for the purpose of plowing it into the 
land. If a crop grown upon a field is returned to it, it 
looks like giving back to the land that which was only 
its own; but the advantage gained becomes palpable 



102 ELEMENTS OF 

wlien "\vc consider how much deeper the roots of hardy 
plants go down for their food than those of the more 
delicate kinds cultivated for a crop. Thus the plant 
food is brouglit where it can be used, Avhich was before 
beyond its reach. 

Two very opposite classes of soil arc benefited by this 
system. If a hardy crop, such as buckwheat, is sown 
upon a thin soil, and turned in just at the time it 
begins to flower, a large increase of organic matter is 
thus added to the soil. The advantages are very soon 
apparent; for the soil is enabled to hold larger supplies 
of moisture, and can take in more gaseous matter from 
the atmosi^here. 

The growth of clover is one of the most general 
means of improving tlie soil. It matters not whether 
it be on light lands, or heavy, or lands of the 
intermediate classes; in each case we see the fertil- 
izing powers of all these soils being improved and 
increased. The clover crop is, in some respects, an 
exceptional one, because it is allowed to stand for a 
longer period before being plowed in. In the meantime, 
it is not only making growtli above ground, but 
also deep into the subsoil. We must not forget 
the fact that tlie groAvth beneath the surface is pro- 
portioned to the growth above the surface; therefore, 
if the growth above the surface is eaten down, the 
extension of the root suffers in proportion. 



BCIEJSTTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 103 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 



CO]SrCER]S'^ING FARM-YAED MAISTUEE. 

Farm-yard manure has long been acknowledged 
as the best manure used on the land. The manure 
produced by different animals is not of the same 
quality; its value is also aflfected by the food the 
animal receives. 

From full-grown animals the manure is rich in 
nitrogen and phosphates. From young animals and 
cows giving milk it is much poorer, because much of 
the food goes to build up the bones and flesh. The 
milk also contains nitrogenous matter and mineral 
sbbstances; the manure, therefore, is poor in these sub- 
stances. The quality of manure, as we just now said, 
is greatly aflfected by the kinds of food the animals 
receive; thus, animals which receive a ration of oil- 
cake will produce very much better manure than 
those fed upon straw, grass, or hay, because the oil- 
cake contains a large amount of nitrogen, phos- 
phoric acid, and potash. Farmers, on this account, 
often find it profitable to buy oil-cake to feed to their 
animals, the manure being then richer and more valu- 
able to the land. 

A ton of farm-yard manure contains about one thou- 
sand, five hundred pounds of vrater, about four hundred 
and fifty pounds of solid matter, and about fifty pounds 
of soluble fertilizing substances, mainly ammonia, silica, 
phosphate of lime, lime, magnesia, potash, soda, common 
salt, sulphuric acid, and carbonic acid. We have here, 
then, all the substances required by plants. 



10-i ELEMENTS OF 

You "will notice the large quantity of water and 
insoluble matter in farm-yard manure, and will be 
inclined to think that it is both unprofitable and 
laborious to haul two thousand pounds to supply only 
fifty pounds of fertilizing matter. Yet, for all that, 
the intelligent farmer finds it to be one of the most 
economical and useful manures that can be used. 
Its bulk is useful to most soils; for it acts physically by 
binding light loose soils, and upon heavy soils by sepa- 
rating them and making channels for air and water to 
penetrate. Upon either light or heavy soils it is also 
very valuable, because of the carbonic acid generated 
by the decay of the vegetable substances it contains, 
which acts upon the dormant matter already in the 
soil, and changes it into soluble plant food. 

Its great value consists in the fact that it returns to 
the soil the very substances which were taken 
from it by the plants; therefore it pays back to the 
soil part of the loan made by it. 

Any farmer who neglects his farm-yard manure, 
thinking to make up the loss by artificial manures, 
Avill find himself most egregiously in error, and will be 
ready to join in the exclamation: ''He that trusts to 
artificial manures, expecting them to supply all the 
requirements of the soil, will find such trust a 
delusion and a snare!" 



CHAPTER XLIX. 



JIOW TO INCPvEASE THE FEETILIZIXG POWEES OF 
MANUEE. 

The superior quality and value of the manure of 
animals fed upon rich foods, such as oil cakes, as a 
means of producing meat, has been fully tested. The 



SCIENTIFIC AND I'RACTICAL AGEICULTURE. l05 

investigation of this subject by Lawes and Gilbert, of 
England, places facts before us of immense value. It 
is sliown by the scientific inquiry of these gentlemen 
that it is possible to obtain from a ton of each of the 
following named foods a manure enriched with fertil- 
izing substances valued as follows: 

BASE OF VALUES. 

If one ton (2,240 lbs.) of pure guano be worth $G0 00 

Then manure from 1 ton decorticated cotton-seed cake 

is worth 32 50 

Then manure from 1 ton rape cake is worth 24 50 

" " 1 " linseed cake is worth 23 12 

" " " 1 " undecorticated cotton-seed cake 
is worth 18 75 

Then manure from 1 ton bran is worth , 13 50 

" " " 1 " clover hay is worth 1150 

" " " 1 " oatsisworth 8 75 

" " " 1 " wheat is worth 8 25 

" " " 1 " corn meal is worth 8 00 

" " " 1 " meadow hay is worth 7 00 

" " " 1 " oat straw is worth , 3 50 

" 1 " wheat straw is worth 3 00 

" " " 1 " potatoes is worth 175 

These results represent a great amount of labor and 
skill, and give information of real value to farmers in 
any country. 

When farm-yard manure is placed in a heap it fer- 
ments. This fermentation is caused by the growth of 
immense numbers of tiny plants of the nature of fungi, 
the same as those found in fermenting wine or cider. 
These spores, or seeds of these plants, are always floating 
about in the air, and attaching themselves to any dead 
animal or vegetable matter, where they find the food they 
require, and begin to grow and multiply with great 
rapidity. As they feed upon the organic matter of the 
farm-yard manure, they break it up into water, car- 



106 ELEMENTS OE' 

bonic acid, ammonia, and other organic acids, 
by the aid of the oxygen of the air. A great deal 
of heat is then produced; and if the manure is kept 
moist, and not allowed to get too hot, the organic 
acids combine with the ammonia and hold it; but 
if it gets dry and too hot, the carbonic acid is 
formed too rapidly, and combines with the ammonia, 
forming carbonate of ammonia, which is very vola- 
tile, and flies off in the air. On the other hand, 
if it gets too wet, the water filters through, and 
the organic acids and ammonia flow away into 
the streams. An intelligent farmer Avill study to 
avoid these losses. A strong pungent smell gives 
him notice of the waste of ammonia in the air, and 
black streams from the heap give him warning 
of the waste of organic acids and ammonia running 
away to a lower level. To cure the first, he should 
moisten the heap with its own drainage; to prevent the 
second, he should try to keep it drier by sheltering it 
from the rains, or he may collect the black drainage 
into a tank and use it on the land. 

A thrifty farmer will be as careful about the shelter 
of manure as of any animal or implement on the farm ; 
lie Avill also see to it that the heap rests on a floor that 
is impervious to water. Without this, the shed 
will be worse than useless, because the urine will be lost 
by soaking away; the manure, in consequence, heats, 
and its virtues fly away. Ammonia is a coy fairy, and 
is easily caused to vanish in the air. 



SCIEifTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGllICULTUKE. 107 



CHAPTER L. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH FARM-YARD MANURE. 

We wisli to impress upon your minds tlio great 
superiority of manure stored up in covered sheds, 
with tight floors, over manure kept under the ordi- 
nary conditions. The following experiments will tend 
to convince the most skeptic upon this subject. 

Lord Kinnaird, a Scotch land owner and farmer, in 
order to test the merits of manures kept in these two 
ways, measured off four acres of good soil; two of 
them were manured with tlie ordinary kind, and the 
other tv/o Avith an equal quantity from a covered shed. 
The whole was planted in potatoes, with the following 
results : 



RESULTS FROM THE ORDINARY 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 



First acre 273 bushels. 

Second acre 293 " 



Total. 



564 



RESULTS FROM THE COVERED 
MANURE. 



First acre 443 bushels. 

Second acre 471 " 

Total 913 '« 



The difference in favor of the two acres supplied 
with the covered manure is three hundred and forty- 
nine bushels; but the advantage does not end here. 
The same land was next sown in wheat, and produced 
as follows: 



WHERE THE ORDINARY MANURE 
WAS USED. 


WHERE THE COVERED 
WAS USED. 


MANURE 


First acre 41 bushels. 

Second acre 43 " 

Total 83 


First acre... 55 bush. 
Second acre 58 " 

Total 113 *•• 


/Gl Ihs. per\ 

I bu h. ; 



108 ELEMENTS OF 

The diJQference again in favor of the land which was 
fertilized with the covered manure was thirty bnshels. 
The yield of straw was also one-third more upon the 
land to which the covered manure was applied than on 
that where the ordinary farm-yard manure Avas used. 

Upon light lands, which have little power of 
retaining the soluble matter contained in the manure, 
a great difficulty has been long felt; but very good 
results have been attained by applying well-rotted 
manure to the land while it was carrying a crop 
capable of rapid growth, it being able to use the solu- 
ble portions of the manure quickly. 

The clover crop has been preferred for this purpose, 
to which the manure is applied at various periods 
of its growth. The results secured were the changing of 
the farm-yard manure into a living crop, and afterwai'd 
making that crop yield plant food to the soil by plow- 
ing it in, which, by its slow and steady decay, 
gives nutriment to the wheat plant progressively. 
The wheat is then as fully benefited as if the soil had 
acted as the guardian of the store of plant food. 

On light soils, then, manure should be applied in a 
Avell broken down condition at the time the plant needs 
it — that is, in the spring — or applied to a vigorous 
kind of plant while it is in active growth. 



CHAPTER LI. 



COMPOST HEArS AND THOUVENAL S PROCESS OF PRO- 
DUCING NITRATE OF POTASH. 

Compost heaps are the means of making a very 
valuable manure for applying to the surface of the soil. 
They are composed of vegetables of various kinds 
mixed with earth and quicklime, with or Avithout 



SCIENTIFIC AND PIUCTICAL AGRICULTURE. 109 

salt; and, if- properly and carefully made, will produce 
a good supply of the nitrat3 of potash. This sub- 
stance is not purchased for use as an artificial manure, 
because its employment for the manufiicture of gun- 
powder gives it a very high value. "Wood ashes contain 
a considerable quantity of potash. 

The means of producing artificially a cheap supply 
of the nitrate of potash was discovered in France by 
Monsieur Thouvenal in 177G. At that time there was 
a great desire in that country to get a supply of this 
substance independent of any foreign country, and the 
result was that enormous quantities were produced by 
Thouvenal's method. It may not be uninteresting to 
state here that Thomas Harris, in England, was granted 
a patent in 1741 for the production of saltpetre, or 
nitre, upon a plan similar to that of the Frenchman, 
for which he received a prize. And as early as 1630, 
David Eamsay, of Scotland, procured a patent " to mul- 
tiplie and make saltpetre in an open fielde in fower 
acres of ground, sufficient to serve all our dominions." 
The art of war stimulated the inventors— not the arts 
of peace. 

The principle upon which these nitre beds were 
formed is a matter of interest to the cultivator of the 
soil, because, by his practice, he has been producing 
nitrate of potash without knowing it, or the cause of a 
success which results so satisfactorily to him. The 
nitre beds are simply compost heaps, formed as follows : 
Good earth is enriched by the addition of sheep 
manure, liquid manure, and quicklime ; the heap 
should be occasionally turned over; the nitrate of potash 
is formed within the heap, and is easily separated after- 
wards by washing the earth, and then evaporating the 
water. 



110 ELEMENTS OF 

The changes which take place are these: Tlie nitro- 
genous matters in the manure decompose so as to 
form ntiric acid ; Avliilst the lime releases the potasli 
from its combination in the soil; and, by the union of 
the nitric acid and potash so produced, we have the 
valuable fertilizer, nitrate of potash. 

The system of plowing farm-yard manure into the soil, 
and then ecattering lime on the surface, and harrowing 
it in, thus mixing the earth and quicklime, which 
finally mixes Avith the manure, brings about the condi- 
tion favorable for the formation of the nitrate of potash. 
If the lime and manure should mix on the surface, 
much ammonia would be formed and escape in the 
air. Success in a certain mode of culture has directed 
many a farmer into a system which gives good returns, 
even when the why and wherefore is yet unknown 
to him. 



CHA PTER LII. 

THE USES OF CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

Lime, chalk, marl, and gypsum are all classed as 
calcareous manures. They act in three diflercnt ways: 

(1) They supply plant food themselves. 

(2) They set free other substances in the soil, thus 
fitting them for plant food. 

(3) They act mechanically upon the soil. 

Marly or calcareous soils would not be benefited by 
the addition of more lime; but clay soils, with a good 
supply of humus, are much improved by an occasional 
dressing — say once in five years. 

Lime and chalk, as we find them, are united with 
carbonic acid gas. There seems to be a strong affinity 
between them; they are, therefore, very difficult to 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. Ill 

separate, and it can only be done by submitting them to 
a strong heat. When they have been separated by 
driving away the carbonic acid gas into the 
air witli tlie heat, they lose no opportunity of uniting 
again. This fact enables us to understand more 
clearly much that is peculiar to lime. The farmer is a 
great loser if he is careless in protecting his quicklime 
from the air, just the same as a builder would be who 
neglected to cover his slacked lime to be used for 
mortar; his loss Avould be discoverable to the eye, 
because it would have lost its power to make a good 
bond — that is, to crystallize — and would crumble out of 
the joints; but the farmer's lime, going into the land, 
he cannot so easily discover the loss, and he supposes 
something else is in fault. Intelligent farmers know 
the value of quicklime, and carefully avoid such waste. 

All plants require lime in their food. Turnips and 
clover need a very large supply. A crop of two tons of 
clover uses one hundred and eleven pounds of lime, as 
will be seen by referring to the table given in a former 
chapter. The best form of lime intended for plant food 
is the carbonate. In the case of meadow land it is 
found after a top dressing of carbonate of lime, that 
the sweeter and better kinds of grass will spring 
up where it would not grow before. By the decay of 
the vegetable matter, too, the inorganic substances, 
which formed part of the dead plant, will be set free 
in the condition just right to the new crop. 

You must bear in mind, however, that lime applied 
to the landjAvithout manure, will be chiefly a stimulant; 
hence the truth of the old adage : 

"Lime and lime without manure, 
Will make both farm and farmer poor." 



ll^ ELEME2^TS 01? 



CHAPTER LIIL 



SUMMARY OF THE VIRTUES OF LIME. 

The great value of the double silicates in the soil we 
noticed in a former chapter. We shall now endeavor 
to discover what is the first step in their formation, 
and how the farmer can forward the work. The 
application of lime in a caustic condition seems to have 
the power necessary to begin this chemical change; 
it displaces some of the alumina, or soda, if it happens 
to be present in combination with silica and alumina, 
and forms the first of the double silicates, viz. : Silicate 
of alumina and lime. The first step being attained by 
the energy of the caustic lime, the formation of the 
others follow in due order. 

The following is the analysis of limestone found on 
land near Cumberland, Md., belonging to the Hon. 
William J. Eead: 

Carbonate of lime 80.93 per cent. 

Combined silica and alumina 14.43 " 

Alumina and oxide of iron 3.60 " 

Moisture 1.04 " 

The constituents of this lime, it will be observed, 
make it very desirable as a fertilizer for either clay or 
sandy soils. On clay soils it encourages the formation 
of the double silicates, and renders the soil more open 
and friable, which favors the admission of air; and, on 
sandy soils, the alumina gives them increased plasticity, 
and the lime and iron promotes the cohesion of 
particles, which, in turn, increase the power of the 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 113 

sandy soil .to hold moisture by capillary attraction, as 
well as forming the double silicates. The soil is thus 
enabled to hold plant food and moisture to an extent it 
never could do before. By this treatment the hungry 
and the stubborn soils are, to a great extent, cured of 
their bad propensities. 

The action of lime in the soil may be summarized as 
follows : 

(A) In its caustic state, as a hydrate of lime, it 
works out five distinct results: 

(1) It acts rapidly on the organic matter in the 
soil by promoting decomposition, which changes nitro- 
genous matters into available ammonia. 

(2) It neutralizes deleterious organic acids in "sour" 
land, and improves and sweetens the quality of the 
herbage. 

(3) It favors the formation of nitrate of potash in 
the soil. 

(4) It . decomposes the silicates of the inorganic 
matter in the soil, setting free the alkalies (potash and 
soda), and thus changes dormant matters into those of 
an active character. 

(5) It promotes the formation of the double silicates. 

(B) When applied to the soil, in its milder form, as 
carbonate of lime: 

(1) It contributes a supply of plant food. 

(2) It neutralizes organic acids. 

(3) It exerts a beneficial influence on sandy soils, by 
imparting a certain amount of tenacity ; on heavy soils, 
by opening up and dividing it; and on peat soils, by 
breaking down their vegetable fibrous tissues. 

Marl is a mixture of carbonate of lime and clay and 
siliceous matters — all of which act beneficially on the 
soil. Marls are so variable in their composition— the 
lime constituent being in some only eight per cent, and 



114 iELIiMENTg 01* 

others from eiglity to ninety per cent. — that it is yery 
difficult for the farmer to know their value, as he can 
have no certainty as to their composition. 

Green marl generally contains about six per cent, of 
lime, and thirty-two per cent, of silica. Gray marl 
contains about forty-two per cent, of lime and twenty 
per cent, of silica. Chalk marl contains about fifty per 
cent, of lime and about eight per cent, of silica. It is, 
therefore, no surprise that the experience of those using 
them has been very varying in results. 

The custom of using marls for fertilizing the soil is 
of great antiquity. Its utility was proven many cen- 
turies before the reason was known. 

Gypsum is a sulphate of lime, often mixed with the 
Carbonate in many marls and chalks. It supplies both 
sulphur and lime to the crops; but it has not the value 
of the carbonate in causing chemical changes in the soil. 



CHAPTER LIV. 

THE ARTIFICIAL MANURES — GUANO AXD BOXES. 

Artificial manures are substances employed to 
supply special wants of the plant, which may be absent 
or not abundant enough in the soil; and they are 
called artificial because the art of man is employed 
to import or manufacture them. Their introduction is 
of a comparatively recent date; but their use as 
special fertilizers has become very general. 

It seems scarcely credible that within a period of less 
than fifty years these manures should have been 
brought to the notice of farmers, and to have secured 
such a universal acknowledgment of merit from them 
in every country where farming is a business, and not 



SCIEKTIFIC AND PEACTICJAL AGRICULTUEE. 115 

merely a perfunctory occupation. It is proof positive 
that these manures have met an important want, 
hitherto unknown. 

Baron Liebig, guided by a careful study of the 
elements of tlie food of plants, in 1840 pointed out the 
properties of guano as being the most infallible of all 
manures for supplying the cereals with food peculiarly 
adapted to their enrichment, and urged farmers to use 
it. The first introduction of guano into England was 
a consignment of thirty bags to a merchant in Liver- 
pool, in 1839; and when the Royal Agricultural Society 
of England held a meeting in 1841, a sample of guano 
was placed on exliibition as a novel Curiosity. 
Peruvian guano has always been accepted as tiie best; 
the first cargoes were exceptionally rich, and contained, 
on an average, seventeen per cent, of ammonia and 
from twenty to thirty per cent of phosphates. 

This manure is the excrement of sea fowls, and their 
bodies added, which have accumulated for centuries 
and remained uninjured by rains. It was found on 
the rocky cliffs of islands off the coast of Peru in great 
quantities; indeed, some of the deposits accumulated 
to such an extent as to become two hundred feet deep. 
The richest deposits were first used; that in the market 
now is of less strength, and consequently of less value. 
The influence of the first Peruvian guano upon strong 
clay was unequaled by any competing manure; upon 
light soils it did not do so well, yet it Avas found to 
be very valuable. 

Guano is adulterated by mixing it with yellow clay, 
gypsum, ground bones, chalk, common salt, sand, and 
powdered coprolites. A bushel of guano should not 
weigh more than fifty-six or sixty pounds, and should 
contain not more than two per cent, of sand and fifteen 
per cent, of moisture. 



116 Elements of 

The first step towards the use of artificial manure 
•was the use of bones — a practice Avhich dates from 
the commencement of the present century. The 
constituents of hones differ according to the age of tlie 
animal — those of the young containing less earthy 
matter than those which are older. In full grown 
animals the earthy matter is about sixty-seven per cent. 
in thoroughly dry bone, the other thirty-three per cent, 
being ihe organic matter. The earthy constituents are 
lime, phosphorus, magnesia, and soda; tlie 
organic part is composed of sulphur, carbonic 
acid, and ammonia. The analysis of the eartliy 
matter in bone is: Phosphate of lime, fifty-eight; lime, 
four; phosphate of magnesia, two; soda and common 
salt, three pounds in every hundred pounds. 



CHAPTER LV. 



PHOSPHATIC MAN'tJEE. 

Phosphates are combinations of phosphoric acid 
with a base. Phosphate of lime is by far the most 
valuable; it forms nearly half of the substance of bono. 
Phosphorus itself is found in combination witli blood, 
flesh, milk, and brains. It has been estimated that 
each cow on a farm makes a demand for about eighty 
pounds of phosphates yearly, and thirty gallons of 
milk contain about one pound of the phosphate of 
lime. It is no wonder, then, that the use of phosphates 
has become an established and remunerative 
practice. 

Supcrphos])hate, or monocalcic phosphate, is too solu- 
ble, and apt to produce vegetation of an unhealthy 
character. The mixture of lime with it will remedy 



SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGEICtJLTURE. ll? 

this injiiribiis action by bringing it back to a bicalcic, 
or more sloAvly soluble state. 

Phosphates may be nsed with advantage on light 
loams, well-drained lands, pastures for dairy- 
purposes, pastures whore young stock graze, and 
the forcing of the germination of seeds, when it is 
desiralile to pusli them past the period when insects 
are destructive. 

The demand for phosphatic manures has been so 
great that tlie supply of bones is inadequate ; therefore 
supplies from other sources had to be sought, and 
chemists set about the work of discovery. Sir J. B. 
Lawcs, of England, was the successful investigator, 
and m.ade the valuable discovery that phosphate of lime 
could be obtained from certain kinds of rocks, as 
well as from bones. Many doubted his ability to do so 
for some time; but facts are stubborn things, and, by 
actual demonstration, he established the truth of it 
beyond all cavil. It can hardly be estimated how enor- 
mous the advantage of this discovery is to the farmer. 

The new product is known as mineral superphos- 
phate of lime. The supply of phosphatic rocks may 
be had in various parts of the world, and thus causes 
an active competition, which keeps the price reasonable. 

The mineral phosphate of lime, in its crystalline form, 
closely resembles the beryl or emerald ; so slight is the 
difference, that mineralogists have been frequently 
deceived by it; for which reason it received the name 
apatite — a name derived from the Greek word apateoe: 
to deceive. 

Another supply of phosphatic manure has been 
recently discovered by Professor "Wrightson and Dr. 
Munro, of Downston College of Agriculture, in Eng- 
land. The basic-cinder, obtained in the depliosphoriza- 
tion of iron in the process of making steel, is found to 



118 ELEMEisTS OF 

contain from fifteen to twenty per cent, of pliosplioric 
acid united with lime, iron, and alumina. This cinder, 
when finely pulverized, and liberally applied to the 
land, is found to he as good for the crops as the other 
well-tried phosphates. 

If a soil contains little carbonate of lime, ground 
bones may be used, because the carbonic acid in tlie air 
and soil will soon change it into the slowly soluble 
bicalcic state, and form at the same time a carbonate 
of lime. 

Superphosphate is an excellent manure for turnips, 
or other rapidly-growing crops, and acts not only as a 
stimulant, but also as a food. For wheat crops, and 
all grasses which are a long time in the ground, bone 
dust or bone ash is best, particularly if the ground 
seems deficient in phosphoric acid. 

The adulteration of bone manure, when the bones are 
in fragments of a good size, is difficult. Bone meal is 
commonly mixed with oyster shells, the enamel of 
which can be easily detected with a magnifying 
glass; sand, chalk, and salt, are also added to increase 
tlie bulk and profit, not to the farmer, but the manu- 
facturer. As a rule, bone manure is now professedly 
mixed with powdered coprolites and other phosphatic 
substances, thus forming valuable combinations, which 
are often profitably applied to the land in conjunction 
with £:uano. 



CHAPTER LVI. 



KITKOGENOUS AND OTHER MANURES. 

"\Vr shall next consider the nitrogenous manures. 
The two substances, ammonia and nitric acid, with 
other nitric compounds, Avhen applied to plants, are 



SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGEICULTURE. 119 

taken up in <i very dilute form by the roots, and help 
to form the nitrogenous part of their substance, viz.: 
Albumen, gluten, and casein. 

Nitrates can only be applied profitably in the 
spring, when there is a growing crop to use them. 
If ai^plied in the fall or winter, they would be washed 
out of the soil. Salt is sometimes applied to the soil 
for its soda, but its most important influence is in 
checking plant growth ; it shortens and strengthens 
the straw of wheat, and, when used on crops which are 
too luxuriant, it is found to act beneficially by giving 
the plant time to elaborate and bring up the necessary 
mineral supplies, and thus increase the production of 
grain. 

Soot is another manure used as a '"top dressing," and 
is valuable for the ammoniacal salts it contains. 

Tanners' bark is not generally valued as a manure; 
its best use is in the compost heap in conjunction with 
lime and earth, or with farm-yard manure, being prin- 
cipally composed of carbonate of lime and silica — sub- 
stances existing almost everywhere. It is generally on 
this account neglected as a manure. 

Saw-dust is useful only as a vehicle for taking up 
liquids; but in itself it is of little value as a manure. 
Mixed Avith dilute sulphuric acid it is one of the 
best materials for fixing ammonia in stables. 

Gas-waste consists of ammoniacal liquor, which fur- 
nishes sulphate and muriate of ammonia. Gas-lime, or 
gypsum, is useful; but it should never be applied to 
the land in a fresh state on account of its sulphur. 
Gas-tar, which might furnish carbonic acid, is now put 
to a much more valuable use in the making of various 
perfumes and dyes. 

Before closing the subject of special manures, we 
think it proper to call your attention to the following 



120 ELEMENTS OF 

facts, as they uro worlliy of the farmers' best con- 
siderations: 

Po not forget tluit muiiures are only a supple- 
mental plant food; the natural source of plant 
food is the soil itself. To pay large sums of money 
for expensive manures, and neglect the soil, is bad 
policy for the farmer. 

Do not forget the good effects of deep, thorough, 
and timely cultivation; let the air and soil inter- 
mingle. 

Do not forget the good effects of a suitable rota- 
tion of crops. 

And, finally, do not forget that a farmer can sell 
and permanently alienate only that portion of the 
produce of his farm which has been supplied by the 
atmosphere. The production of butter does not ex- 
haust the soil, because it is constituted of substances 
which came from the air. On the same principle, the 
putting of fat on full-grown animals, and afterward 
selling them, does no injury to the soil; but the pro- 
duction of milk and cheese is very exhaustive — also, the 
rearing of young stock. The soil requires a restitution 
of the mineral substances which have been taken away, 
such as the phosphates, and likewise the feeding of 
oil-cake. 

A field from which no mineral substance is abstracted 
without being given back, must increase in pro- 
ductive powers. This may be set down as one of 
the most valuable of farmers' axioms, as it expresses 
the whole groundwork of rational farming. 



SCIEIifTiriC AI^D PRACTICAL AGKICULTUEE. 121 



CHAPTER LVII. 



BOTANY — AGEICULTURAL PLA^S'TS — THEIR GERMIifA- 
TIO]N\ 

Ik the beginning of this book we had a few chapters 
describing a pLant us the chief concern of all cultiva- 
tion; we saw how plants feed upon the carbonic acid, 
and the nitrogen of the air; and also how they feed 
upon the organic and inorganic matters gxisting in the 
soil, or carried into it by the rains. We learned that 
these substances must reach the roots of tlie plants and 
their leaves cither in tlie form of gas or perfectly and 
clearly dissolved in water, in which state it is drunk up 
by the tiny fibers, or the minute hairs, which abound in 
the young roots; we likewise learned that the entire 
plant was made up of wee, tiny cells, which were com- 
pared to very minute paper bags or boxes, shut up on 
all sides, and filled with a fluid Ave generally call sap. 
This fluid contains the food of the plant, which was in 
perfect solution, when taken in by the roots, and passes 
from bag to bag until it reaches the leaves, where the 
water is exhaled into the air; and those substances 
which were held in solution become plant nourishment 
under the influence of the light of the sun exerted 
upon the green matter in the cells of the leaves. 

We may now go a little deeper into the mysteries of 
the growth of plants, particularly those which are cul- 
tivated for a crop. 

We shall begin with the seed, and closely watch the 
process of its development up to the maturity of the 
plant. It must be clear to your mind that if we would 



122 ELEMENTS OF 

have a perfect plant wo must have a perfect seed, 
otherwise tlie young plant Avill be defective, or the seed 
may not sprout at all. They should also be fresh — 
that is, they should not be exposed to the extremes of 
heat and cold, or heated in the shock or bin, and sliould 
be taken from the crop preceding the planting or 
sowing. Seeds Avhich have a delicate outer skin, such 
as wheat, lose their moisture very easily, and become 
lifeless in a few years, and are, consequently, unfit for 
being sown or planted. 

Turnip seed is an exception to the general rule. 
Farmers, in places Avhcre the turnip crop is important, 
have found by experience that it makes a better 
crop of bulbs and less leaf by being two years old 
when sown. When new turnip seed has been used, 
it has been found that the tops are larger and upper 
growth so vigorous that many of the plants make 
the effort to "run to seed" the first year. 

Each seed has a germ, or embryo, which fills the 
whole seed in some kinds, as the pea and turnip; in 
others, as wheat, corn, oats, and tlie like, the germ 
occupies only a small portion of the seed, the rest of the 
seed being filled with materials provided for the 
support of the germ until the plant is developed 
enough to gather and manufacture its own food from 
the air and the soil. 



CHAPTER LVIII. 



GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 



All plants depend upon the seed for their nourish- 
ment in the earliest stages of their growth. All seeds 
contain starch, gluten, and oil. In the first process of 
germination the gluten is changed by the oxygen 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 123 

derived from the atmosphere into a soluble substance, 
which the chemists call diastase. This substance next 
acts on the starch or oil, and changes it into grape 
sugar, and, finally, into cellulose. Cellulose forms 
organized cells, which, in their progress of develop- 
ment, produce the first little shoot. 

You will find it interesting and instructive to make 
an experiment in the germination of seeds, as follows : 
Take twelve peas, a like number of grains of wheat and 
corn; place them between the folds of a piece of 
flannel, and give them a supply of air, warmth, and 
moisture; or, if it be summer time, place them in a 
warm and moist corner of the garden, and mark the 
place of each seed; then, every twenty-four hours, 
take up one of each kind and notice tlie changes taking 
place. The moisture, as we stated in a former chapter, 
will find its way into and throughout the seed 
by a series of irrigating channels provided by 
nature for this purpose. Thus water penetrates more 
deeply into the seed, giving a more equal distribution, 
consequently a more equal swelling of the seed. 

If the seed becomes "dirty," or partially coated with 
any sticky substance, the entrances by these irrigating 
channels will be obstructed ; consequently there is an 
irregular distribution of moisture and faulty germina- 
tion. Here, then, we have the why and the wherefore 
for a long established practice of every gooa farmer. 
"Without the guidance of science, farmers look upon 
a dry seed bed as an essential condition for success, 
particularly where the soil is a clay or clay loam; the 
seed does not then become "dirty," and a perfect 
germination takes place. 

"We again return to our seeds. The moisture finds its 
way into the seeds, causing them to SAvell and enlarge; 
the oxygen of the air, entering at the same time, causes 



12-i ELEMENTS OF 

those clieniicul changes to take phice, before mentioned, 
leading to the growth of tlie germ into a complete 
plant. By the swelling of the seed the outer skin is 
riven and the young root appears, pointing downward; 
then the plumule shows itself, pointing upward, and 
soon appears above ground. Here Ave see a great 
difference between the pea and the wheat. Near the 
l)]init end of the wheat is the germ, consisting of seed 
leaf, plumule, and radicle; all the rest of the grain is 
filled with the white substance, chiefly starch, Avhicli is 
the food that is to sustain the young plant until some 
other means are provided. This substance, starch, you 
will remember, is insoluble in water, becomes 
changed into a white, SWeet fluid by the chemical 
action of the oxygen, which takes place during germi- 
nation, and then becomes easily soluble in the water 
which penetrates the seed; and then, with the other 
food substances which have been subjected to the same 
action, it passes from cell to cell, till it reaches the 
young plant, and supplies it with perfect food. 

We examine the seed again, and find it further 
advanced; we observe three root fibers coming forth 
from the blunt end of the wheat root, and, after 
awhile, again we see that the fibers have increased in 
number and length, whicli are now covered with tiny 
things looking like hairs; at the same time vre find the 
plumule has advanced upwards into a green shoot. 
The plant is now ready to begin life on its own account. 
It can now absorb nourishment from the soil, and 
pass it on upwards to the leaves, which are now ready 
to do their appointed share of the Avork. 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGKICULTUEE. 125 



CHAPTER LIX. 



GEEMINATION OF SEEDS — PEA AND TUENIP. 

We may now observe the germination of the pea. 
The arrangement in this seed we find to be very dif- 
ferent to til at of wheat. In the first place, there is no 
separate store of food, as in wheat; bnt, instead, we find 
two thick, fleshy leaves filling np the hull or case, and 
shaped like hemispheres, which come apart; between 
these two leaves lie the plumule and radicle. 

When it germinates, and the seed-leaves swell up 
with the moisture and the oxygen which enter the 
irrigating channels, the starch and other substances 
which they contain become sweet and soluble, and so 
pass through the cells to the plumule and radicle. 
These then begin to grow — the radicle growing down- 
wards and the plumule upwards — until the tiny root- 
hairs appear, and the first green leaves spread out to 
the air. The young plant is now able to get food for 
itself, and has no further need for the seed-leaves, 
which perish underground. 

There is another difierence in the germination of 
turnip seed. The embryo, like that of the pea, has two 
seed-leaves, but they are small, and hold only a small 
supply of food. But they push quickly up into 
the air, throw off their seed-case, spread themselves out 
to the air, and become green, and begin almost at once 
to draw in food from the soil and the air, and thus 
make up for the very limited supply furnished by the 
seed. 

Another difference in the turnip seed is that the store 
of nourishment consists chiefly of oil, instead of 



126 ELEMENTS 01" 

starch; but 3-()u Avill remember that both substances 
are composed of tlie three elements, carbon, oxygen, 
and hydrogen, and that both can be changed by ger- 
mination into a sugar-like substance. You will like- 
Avise notice that in the germination of wheat the radicle 
gives out several fibers from a sort of sheath or blunt 
end; v,]uh in the pea or turnip the radicle itself 
elongates and goes down into the soil, forming a 
''tap-root." These are the principal modes of ger- 
mination among all ordinary plants. 

Barley, oats, rye, and all the grasses, germinate like 
wheat; beans, clover, and all the legumes like the pea; 
cabbage and mustard, like the turnip. 



CHAPTER LX. 



CONCERNING THE ROOTS OF PLANTS. 

We are now prepared to take up the subject of the 
roots of plants, and inquire into their uses in the 
economy of vegetable growth. The food of plants con- 
sists of various mineral matters completely dissolved in 
water in the soil, and of certain gases, especially car- 
bonic acid gas, which exists in the air. We have 
likewise learned, in a former chapter, that the water 
carrying the food in solution passes through the hair- 
like membranes of the roots into the cells of the plant 
on its way to the leaves. 

Let us now inquire how plant-roots go down into 
the soil. It cannot force its roots down into the soil as 
you would force a stick into the ground. The 
root stretches down into the soil by tlie growth 
of nev7 cells near the tips of the rootlets. 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTtJRE. 127 

The tip -of the root grows into the little spaces it 
finds between the particles of soil, and then the cells 
just above the tip multiply very fast, by each cell 
dividing into two, each of which becomes as large as 
the first cell when it is again ready to divide; as this 
goes on in hundreds of cells, and these all become 
swollen with moisture, absorbed from the soil, the 
rootlet grows rapidly in length and thickness, creeping 
into the spaces lower and lower down into the soil, and 
making these spaces wider by forcing away the particles 
on every side. If the subsoil is very hard and close, and 
the fibers find no spaces to grow into, they either cease 
to grow, or spread out sideways among their neighbors, 
and thus, becoming crowded, they get an inadequate 
supply of food. One of the benefits of deep cultivation, 
you will perceive, is the loosening of the subsoil, thus 
allowing the tips of the roots to grow into iti freely in 
their search for food. 

The roots of some plants grow down to a great depth 
in their search for food. Lucerne, a kind of clover, 
has been known to send its roots more than fifteen feet 
in an open soil. Wheat and red clover also send their 
roots down to a depth of seven feet, if the subsoil is 
favorable; barley and grass spread out their roots near 
the surface ; corn is a vigorous groAver, and sends its 
rootlets far and wide, but not deep; they have been 
traced a distance of thirteen feet from the stalk. 

The thick, fleshy roots of turnips and beets show a 
different economy to the plants we have been consider- 
ing. They collect food from the soil, pass it upwards 
to the leaves, where nature's laboratory is located, and it 
goes back from the leaves in the form of sugar and 
other organic matters, to be stored up in the bulb until 
the second year, for the purpose of supporting the 
plant, while it is bringing forth flowers and seeds. 



128 ELEMENTS OF 

These kinds of plants are called biennial plants, 
because they require two years to complete the round of 
tlieir existence. Eoots possess the power of aJ^sorbing 
carbonic acid and ammonia, and of employing tliese in 
their organism in the same Avay as if the absorption 
had taken place through the leaves. 



CHAPTER LXI. 



USES OF STEMS — LEAVES, THE LABORATOEY OF NATURE. 

The stem grows from the tiny plumule, or bud of 
the seed, up into the air. One of its important uses to 
the plant is to lift up its leaves to air and light; 
another use is to convey to the leaves the dissolved 
food which the roots have absorbed from the soil. 

The stems of wheat are hollow, and have no branches; 
those of potatoes are solid and branched; Avhile turnips 
and beets have very short stems the first year of 
their groAvth; the leaves seem to grow at that period 
from the top of the root; but all are built up alike of 
minute cells, some short and round in shape, others 
elongated and narrow, tlirough which the sap passes on 
to the leaves. 

The principal organs which assimilate the food, 
or make it like the substance of the plant itself, are 
the leaves. Stop here and consider the wonderful 
and importanjb duties of a leaf. From the simple sub- 
stances, water, carbonic acid, ammonia, potash, and the 
other substances giA'en in a former chapter, are pro- 
duced the complicated substances, starch and cellulose, 
of which the plant is built up. 

Tlie leaf is the factory in which this work 
goes on; therefore, if a plant be stripped of its 



SCIENTIFIC AND PKACTICAL AGKICULTURE. 129 

leaves, it cannot live. The exact chemical process by 
which these wonderful results are produced have, up 
to the present time, eluded the search of man; 
but the general process has been made out pretty 
clearly. 

The leaf is composed of layers of soft green cells, 
strengthened with ribs consisting of long hard cells. 
These ribs are sometimes called veins, but they are not 
hollow like the veins of animals. The ribs strengthen 
the tender leaves, and convey sap from the stem. The 
upper and lower surfaces of the leaf consist of thin, 
transparent skins, having a great number of minute 
openings, like pores in the skins of animals, through 
which the carbonic acid and other gases are taken in 
from the air, and watery vapor and oxygen gas given 
out. This water and oxygen came up from the roots of 
the plant with what was held in solution; and as they 
are breathed out, the other substances which it con- 
tained are retained in the cells of the leaf, and are 
in some marvelous way assimilated by the help of the 
protoplasm and chlorophyl into organic substances, 
especially starch, with a small amount of mineral 
matter. From the starch, by the same mysterious 
agency, sugar, oil, and cellulose are formed. All these 
contain carbon, which is chiefly gotten from the car- 
bonic acid of the air, so hurtful to man and animals; 
but the leaves give back to the air the oxygen which 
is so beneficial to animal life. 

The substances composing the food of the plant 
having been thus assimilated by the mysterious action 
of the leaves, pass back into the stem from the leaves, 
and are used there at once, or are stored there or in the 
root for future use. 

To accomplish this, mysterious chemical changes 
take place that we can only in part knoAV. Take, for 



130 ELEMENTS OF 

example, a potato plant; starch is formed in the leaves, 
Avhicli substance is insoluble in water, and, therefore, 
in that state it cannot pass through the walls of 
the cells to return to the stem; a change takes place 
whereby the starch is made into a kind of sugar, wliich 
we all know is soluble; it then passes down the stem of 
the plant to side branches below the surface, where it 
is again changed back to starch, and forms the tubers 
(potatoes), for which the plant is cultivated. These 
tubers are really short, thick branches, filled principally 
with starch, and the eyes are merely buds. 

In the turnip the same mysterious clvanges take 
place, only the store is deposited in tlie root, which 
thus becomes thick and fiesliy. 

In the beet plant the starch formed in the leaves 
changes into grape sugar; then it passes back down tlie 
leaf-stalk; then into the root, and there changes into 
cane sugar. 

In wheat the assimilated materials in the leaves pass 
back to the stem, and then it passes upward and into 
the ear, to become fruit and seed. 

You must remember there is no continuous system 
of vessels to carry these substances, as in the animal 
economy, but they pass from cell to cell towards any 
part of the plant, which, in active growtli, requires the 
supply. 

CHAPTER LXII. 



THE FLOWER. 



You may have observed that all plants with wliich 
you are acquainted have flowers; some are bright col- 
ored, and some dim colored — not easily seen; some are 
large, as the pea and the clover, and others small, as 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTUEE. 131 

those of the wheat, the grasses, and the beet. The 
flowers, however, whether large or small, are all con- 
structed on the same principle, perform the same 
functions, viz.: They bring forth seed, and, there- 
fore, increase and multiply their kind. 

Suppose we take a few flowers and examine them, 
and see how they are constructed and fitted for the 
duties assigned them. You will be more interested if 
you do this, each one for himself, and try to make out 
the different j)arts of each flower you may find. 

Take first the flower of the cabbage, the turnip, or 
the mustard, and you will see that they are all nearly 
alike. You may, perhaps, not be able to meet with 
cither of these as conveniently as you can a single 
wall-flower, which is very nearly like them, and it 
is found in almost every garden. First, pull off the 
four outside green leaves of the flower, which 
form the calyx; next the four bright colored 
leaves, called the corolla, which, you will observe, are 
arranged in the form of a cross, from which fiict the 
whole of these plants, and all others like them, are 
classed by the botanist in the order cruciferse. These 
parts you have stripped off seem designed to protect 
the inner organs, and probably to attract insects, 
the use of which we shall examine hereafter; the inner 
organs are the most important parts of the flower. 
You will now see six upright stalks, called filaments, 
two of which are a little shorter than the rest — all 
having knobs at the top, called anthers, which, upon 
investigation, you will discover to be hollow, and bear- 
ing a fine yellow powder. These are called stamens, 
which consist of filament and anther. In the centre, 
surrounded by these stamens, is the pistil, which 
Avould, if the flower had been allowed to complete its 
course, become the seeds or fruit. Before this can 



132 ELEMENTS OF 

liuppcn, however, it is necessary that some of the ycUow 
powder, whicli is technically called pollen, should, 
fall upon the top of the pistil, Avhen it would 
penetrate to the ovules contained in the pistil; they 
are, by this means, caused to groAv until they become 
perfect seed. 

This action of the pollen is called fertilization, 
because it causes the plant to become fruitful, and 
bring forth seed and fruit. 



CHAPTER LXIII. 



THE FLOWERS OF THE PEA — WHEAT AXD CLOVER. 

Suppose wc now take the flower of a pea, and try to 
make out some of its parts. We find the colored part 
of these floAvers to bo of a peculiar winged shape, 
similar to the wings of a butterfly; therefore, plants of 
this family are said to be jja^nlmiaceous ; they likewise 
form part of a large order of plants which bear pods; 
the order on this account are called Icguminosce. 

In this flower you will find ten stamens, nine of them 
being joined into a tube-like vessel around the pistil. 
The pistil consists of one cell containing several ovules, 
which Avill increase in size and become the pea-pod 
with its peas. 

In clover, ujion examination, you will find a large 
number of floAvers, similar to tliose of the pea, each 
having its stamens and pistil, but bunched together, 
forming what is called a compound flower. 

We shall now examine a flower of wheat, because 
it will be a fair representative of the grass famil}-. AVe 
must look for the floAvcr when the leaves are very green. 
You will see many tiny yelloAV bodies hanging out of 



SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGIlICULTUilE. 133 

each ear; these are the stamens. You will also find 
the ear to be composed of several rows of these tiny- 
flowers arranged around a central stalk. Take one of 
these floAvers; instead of bright-colored leaves, as iu 
pea, clover, or wall-flower, we find the flower to be 
inclosed in small, chaffy-like leaves, having the 
stamens, with fine thread-like stalks and hanging heads 
surrounding the pistil, which has but one ovule. At 
the top of the pistil are tAvo feathery arms which 
receive the pollen of the stamens, and convey it down 
into the pistil ; the ovule is then said to be fertilized. 

Corn has a somewhat different arrangement. The 
"tassel" at the top of the plant produces the pollen in 
great abundance, and in its season fills the air, and the 
"silk" projecting from the ear conveys it to the ovules; 
but on account of the distance between the "tassel" 
and the "silk," if a stalk of corn groAvs up with no 
near neighbors, but fcAV of the pistils Avill receive the 
pollen, and the ear will, consequently, be found to have 
but fcAV grains on it. 



CHAPTER LXIV. 



FLOWERS — THE REASON OF THEIR ATTRACTIVENESS. 

You have many a time observed in a field of cloA^er, 
or other kinds of plants having bright floAvers, hoAv 
active bees and other insects are flying from floAver to 
flower, searching for honey, Avliich they find secreted 
by the floAver, and held generally at the very bottom 
of it. In trying to reach this SAveet liquid, the insects 
brush against the stamens and get covered Avith the 
pollen. They carry this to the next floAver, Avhere some 
of it is rubbed olf against the top of the pistil, thus 
insuring the fertilization of the ovule. 



134 ELEMENTS OF 

It has been proved by experience that most plants 
produce more and better seed when they have been 
fertilized with the pollen from another flower 
of the same kind, than if each flower had been 
supplied Avith its own pollen. We, therefore, have 
come to the conclusion that honey-gathering insects 
benefit the farmer greatly by insuring the cross fertili- 
zation of the flowers of such plants as need it; thns 
benefiting the flowers as much as the flowers benefit 
the bees by supplying them with the liquid sweets. 
This, in fact, seems to be the reason why so many plants 
have showy and attractive flowers, w4th a delicious 
smell, and sweet liquid, as all these qualities are very 
attractive to the honey-gathering tribe. 

This law of nature bids us be careful not to grow 
plants of the same order contiguous to each other, if 
our object is to get seed from them for sowing. For 
example, if cabbages and turnips, which belong to the 
order cruciferoe, be grown for their seed in adjoining 
plots, insects will convey the pollen of the one to the 
other, and the turnip will be fertilized by the cabbage, 
and the cabbage by the turnip. The seeds of both will 
then be rendered worthless for the purpose of growing 
a crop from them, as they will produce neither the kind 
of cabbages nor turnips we wish to grow. "We once 
planted some early amber sugar-cane seed, Avhicli liad 
been grown next to a "corn patch;" both belong to 
the order gramina; the result was we had neither corn 
nor sugar-cane. It looked well enough while growing, 
but when the time of harvesting came, the stalks were 
light, like those of corn, and almost worthless for the 
object for which it was planted. 

"Wheat and other plants with dull, inconspicuous 
flowers do not require the help of insects, because they 
axe either plentifully supplied with their own pollen, 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTUEE. 135 

or the wind scatters and mixes the pollen among the 
neighboring plants. 

You may also notice the fact, that when the oyule is 
fertilized the gay-colored parts, together with the 
stamens, having performed their functions in the 
economy of the plant, and being no longer needed, begin 
to wither, decay, and drop off. The pistil, with its 
ovules, however, enlarges, and brings forth the seed and 
fruit. 

The seeds of the turnip, wall-flower, and other plants 
of the same family, are produced in a double kind of 
pod, which opens below, on each side, and has two 
rows of seed. 

The fruit of the pea, and other leguminous plants, is 
produced in the well-knoAvn single pod or legume, with 
one row of seeds. 

In wheat and other plants of the grass family the 
fruit is called the seed, because the covering or case fits 
it so closely that it cannot be taken off without destroy- 
ing the seed. This outer covering is the bran which 
comes off in thin pieces when the grain is reduced to 
flour in the process of milling. 

The fruit of the potato is the green plum — a 
fleshy fruit growing on the vine above ground, contain- 
ing the seeds. They are of little importance to the 
farmer, as he produces his crop by planting the tubers, 
which are really short, thickened knobs of underground 
branches with buds. 



CHAPTER LXV. 



HOW AGRICULTURAL PLANTS ARE UTILIZED. 

The whole object and aim of the entire life of a 
plant is to bring forth seed, thereby insuring the 
continuance of its kind through future generations. 



130 ELEMENTS OI* 

"\Vc have spoken of the seed and its germination, and 
have come around to it again. All plant life seems to 
round off in a circle, and the fanner breaks into 
tliat circle at whatever point it Suits his needs. 
Thus, Avhen he wants the green leaves and stems, as 
he does in grass and clover, he encourages green 
growth by proper manures, and cuts them down 
when leaf and stem are at their richest. AVhen he 
wants the laid up stores of the plants, which they 
put away for their own use, as he does in the case of 
the turnip and beet, he manures accordingly, and 
utilizes the crop at the end of the first year, when 
the plant has accumulated all the food it is capable 
of doing. When he wishes the seeds, as in the 
grain crops, he discourages the growth of too much 
foliage, and allows the plant to run the full round of 
its life, and cuts it down and secures it when its seed 
arrives at maturity. 

You must bear in mind that the seed in all cases 
contains an accumulation of food both suitable and 
sufficient for the next year's young plant while in the 
process of germinating. Likewise, the seed, in many 
cases, makes excellent food for man and the animals 
used by him. 

The farmer grows seed for two purposes, viz.: For 
food and for sowing again. By selecting the 
seed carefully, and choosing the best every time, 
he can improve both the quality and quantity of 
his crops, if the land be in proper condition. By 
continuing this process for years, we come to estab- 
lish the good points of quality; such seeds are then 
called pedigree seeds. It was the carrying out of 
this process of selection, that all our cultivated 
plants were improved up to the standard of excellence 
we now find them, from llie plant growing in a wild 



SCIEKTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 137 

state. By selection, wheat, rye, and oats have been 
derived from the grasses; cabbage and turnips from 
plants, even noAV growing wild in Europe; and the beet 
from the worthless-looking sea beet, which 
abounds on the seashores of England and Ireland. 

It is important that the farmer should not overlook 
the fact that it is the same with plants as with animals. 
Development does not eradicate constitutional 
traits and tendencies; therefore, beneath all is the 
craving for the primeval condition of life, and so the 
best success with plants of any kind will assuredly be 
attained by those who can give them the nearest 
approach to the soil, climate, food, and culture 
suggested by their native haunts and habits. 
Wetness is not favorable to plants generally grown for 
a crop; but abundant and continuous moisture is an 
absolute necessity. Soil naturally deficient in this, and 
which cannot be made drought-resisting by deep 
ploAving and underdrainage, is not adapted to growing 
crops. The beet still craves for the briny spray of 
the sea; the strawberry for vegetable mold; and the 
gooseberry for the cool shade. 



CHAPTER LXVI. 



AGRICULTURAL PLANTS AND THEIR BOTANICAL ORDER. 

AVe have now learned how crops grow; how seeds 
germinate; how nourishment is collected by the plant; 
how plants bring forth seed, and thus reproduce 
and muUi})ly their kind. It will be well now to learn 
how crops are grown, so as to produce the 
greatest quantity of food in the best condition 
for man and beast, with the least labor and least 



13B ELEMENTS OI* 

expense to tlic furmcr. The crops may be classified 
as grain crops, fodder crops, and root crops. 

It may be of interest to state, that out of the many 
orders of plants which are found in the United States, 
six orders contain nearly all the cultivated plants 
grown on the farm generally for a crop; and the 
greatest number of these are confined to three great 
families, viz.: Grasses, legumas, and cruciferae. 

The six natural orders are these: (1) Gramina, or 
grass family, such as Avheat, corn, oats, barley, and rye. 
(2) Leguminosae, or pod-bearers, as clover, beans, peas, 
and vetches. (3) Crucifera?, or cross-bearers, as turnips, 
mustard, and cabbage. (4) Chenopodece, or spinach 
family, as the beet and celery. (5) Umbeliferse, having 
umbel flowers, as the carrot and parsnip. (6) Solaneae, 
or nightshade family, as the potato, tobacco, and 
tomato. 

The word cereal is derived from the Latin word Ceres, 
which was the name of a heathen goddess, who was 
believed by her worshipers to preside over the interests 
of the agriculturalist. Crops which are chiefly culti- 
vat3d for their seeds, as wheat, corn, oats, and rye, 
are called cereals. 

Of all the cereals, corn may be set down as the most 
important. If the farmer should be successful in pro- 
curing a good crop of corn, although every other crop 
should fail, ho may be considered in a comparatively 
comfortable condition. "Famine begins ut the stall." 
There is no fear of such a crisis if the corn crop be 
abundant, because it is valuable both for fodder and 
grain. It may be considered the sheet-anchor of 
the farmers of the United States. Just stop 
for a moment and think of the marvelous wealth 
coming from the corn crop of the United States. Upon 
an average of one hundred days from the time the seed is 



Scientific and practical AGRiCtJLTtJRE. 139 

planted till the grain is matured, its production lias a 
money yulue of over $600,000,000, averaging over 
$6,000,000 daily of actual wealth each day of its life. 
No other product from any other source in the Union 
can compare "vvith it. And think again, that with 
proper tillage, without increasing the acreage, 
or very much augmenting the labor, the crop may 
be doubled. 

There are many varieties of corn, which have been 
developed by careful selection of the seed and by growth 
in different localities and climates. Some kinds are 
peculiarly adapted to short seasons, and others to 
longer seasons. The best soil for corn is a rich clay 
loam; but it will grow with fair success upon any 
moderately fertile soil, where the climate and variety of 
seed is suitable in the United States. There is no crop 
responds better to deep cultivation and frequent stirring 
of the soil while the plant is making growth. If the 
stalk and leaves are designed to be utilized for fodder, 
it must be cut before frost affects it, carefully cured, and 
protected from the elements. There is no food better 
relished, nor more healthful for all kinds of stock, such 
as horses, cattle, and sheep. Ailments arising from the 
use of corn fodder are unknown, if it has been well 
cured and protected from the weather. Let the same 
care and labor of storing be employed in providing the 
winter supply from this plant, as for ensilage, and it will 
give more satisfaction and cost less, with no risk, than 
the silo can possibly be expected to do in our dry 
atmosphere. Corn was unknown to the people of the 
Old AVorld until the discovery of America by Christo- 
pher Columbus in 1492. 



140 ELEMENTS OF 



CHAPTER LXVIL 



THE WHEAT CROP. 

The next cereal in importance is wheat. It is 
most probably a native of Europe, or Soutliwestern 
Asia, l)ut it lias been cultivated for very many years in 
every country of the world. By careful selec- 
tion, many kinds have been produced, such as the 
white and red "wheat, the smooth and bearded, and the 
winter and spring wheat. It is the habit of wheat to 
penetrate deeply into the soil in search of food. 
The best soils for Avheat are the reddish clay soils 
of timber land and a clay loam. The wheat raised 
on timber land is generally plumper in the berry, 
smoother, brighter, and thinner skinned than that 
grown in the prairies, and brings the highest price. 

The usual order of wheat, in the rotation of crops, is 
after clover. The clover is turned under and the 
wheat drilled amongst its inverted roots, which gath- 
ered their nourishment from the subsoil, and gives that 
firmness to the seed-bed Avhich wheat requires without 
allowing it to become baked. 

When the seed has germinated, and the root-fibers 
grown out from the sheath, little buds sprout out 
around the young plant, and several stalks grow up. 
This is called tillering usually; in the "Western States 
it is called "stooling out." As many as forty stems 
have been known to tiller out from one seed in good 
soil, and having plenty of room. 

Wheat for milling purposes should be cut as soon as 
the milky juice in the grain sets firm, so as not to 



SOiEKTlFlC AND PRACTICAL AGEICULTtTRE. 141 

run out belween the fingers when squeezed* If it h& 
allowed to remain until ripe, it is liable to "shell Out'^ 
when harvested, and the hull, or bran, becomes 
thickened. After the fertilization of tlie flower the 
plant takes little or no nourishment from the 
soil. The growth of the s^ed is due to the movement of 
the substances already in the leaves. These sub- 
stances move up the stem and into the grain, and these 
movements go on just as well after the wheat is cut. 

In manuring for wheat, it is best to apply slowly- 
acting manures to the previous crop. If the plant 
is not sufficiently vigorous in the spring, a top-dressing 
of a stimulating character, such as nitrate of soda, or a 
mixture of guano and bone meal, may be applied to 
encourage growth for a time, after which the energies 
of the plant should be devoted to filling and ripening 
the seed. If the growth be too vigorous, an application 
of between two and three hundred weight of common 
salt per acre will be found beneficial, as it discourages 
its too luxuriant growth. The average crop in this 
country is very low, being less than ten bushels per 
acre; but, by proper cultivation and intelligent 
management, the average crop may be raised to 
twenty-five or thirty bushels per acre, if the season be 
fairly propitious. 



CHAPTER LXVIII. 



BARLEY, OATS, AND RYE CROPS. 

There are several varieties of barley — the two-rowed 
and four-rowed. That mostly grown is the two-rowed, 
or spring variety. It should be sown as early in the 
spring as possible. Great care must be taken to have a 
good powdery seed-bed ; but it need not be so firm 



143 ELEMENTS OF 

as for -wheat. The roots of barley spread out near the 
surface of the soil. For malting purposes the crop 
must be dead ripe before it is cut. 

So great is the dilicrence of barley in value for malt- 
ing, that the kinds sold for feeding purposes are worth 
in the market only fifty or fifty-five cents per bushel; 
while that for brewing purposes brings more than a 
dollar per bushel. For malting, the best is grown in 
Northern localities, where the ripening process is 
gradual, slow, and complete. Hot climates grow barley 
suitable only as food for stock. Herodotus is credited 
with the statement that the people of Egypt, being 
without vines, "made their wine from barley." Pearl 
barley is the grain decorticated, and is principally used 
for making Scotch broth. Sick persons have been suc- 
cessfully brought through a fever by the cooling and 
nourishing diet of drinks made from pearl barley. 

As we travel along a road in early summer, and look 
over a field of growing barley, and notice the soft, 
silvery sheen of the light and shade, which seems a 
visible song, as the breeze passes over the silky, green, 
and waving surface, so charming is this sight that the 
wanderer invariably stops, pausing in his walk to view 
the undulating picture. The pause is involuntary — 
much the same as when a rambler in the time when the 

"Genial spring, wi' balmy brCcath, gars verdure spring anew, 
And ilka blade o' grass kep its ain drap o' dew," 

hears the song of birds in a cosy grove, as his sense of 
hearing first catches the sound of nature's joyous chor- 
isters. In either case, the sense of sight or hearing 
derives a pleasure which, to be fully enjoyed, commands 
a pause beyond the ordinary emotions of life. 

A change of seed is beneficial; that is, seed should 
be obtained from a crop grown in a different district, 



SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGRICULTUIIE. 143 

as it lias been found to succeed better than tliat taken 
from a previous crop on the same farm. This is 
proven to be true of all cereals. Experience taught 
us this very important truth. Tlie average crop of 
barley is nearly twenty bushels; but, by proper tillage 
and good management, it may be raised to double that 
quantity. 

The oat crop is one of the most hardy of the cereals. 
It is the chief cereal of Scotland, where it is grown to 
great perfection. The oat has its flowers and grain 
hanging from little stalks which brancli out and 
around the main stem. More seed per acre is required 
for this grain than either wheat or barley, because it 
does not tiller so much as either of these. 

Oatmeal forms an important part of the food of the 
yeomen of Scotland. Upon this fact Dr. Johnson 
based his definition of oats. "Oats," he says, "food for 
men in Scotland— in England for horses;" intimating 
that the Scotch fed on the kind of food which the 
English only fed to horses. But the Scotchman, it is 
generally considered, got the advantage of the doctor's 
sneering definition by appending the humorous finish 
to it: "And Avhere find such men, and such horses." 
Although Sydney Smith said it required a surgical 
operation to get the point of a joke into the head of a 
Scot, yet it may be granted that he has some humor, 
which, when employed by him, is very caustic and 
complete. 

Oatmeal contains more fat and more nitrogenous 
substances than wheat, and is proved to be the very 
best food which can be used for children and per- 
sons having to Avork in exposed situations in a cold 
climate. By analysis it is found to be the best bal- 
anced food derived from any of the cereals; 
that is, it requires less animal food to make up any 



144 ELEMENTS OF 

deficiency it may lack than bread made from wheat, 
which requires mucli animal food to make up and com- 
2)lete tlie balance of the nourishing substances neces- 
sary for the body. 

Oat straw is more yaluable than that of any of the 
cereals as a fodder, being often as nutritive as hay, 
especially if cut before it is quite ripe. 

The average crop is about thirty- five bushels to the 
acre; but sixty or seventy bushels may be grown by 
good tillage and propitious weather. 

Eye is also a hardy kind of grain, and may be grown 
upon poor, sandy soil.'^, which Avould produce very little 
of anything else. It is often grown by farmers for 
green cutting and for a temporary pasture. Bye flour 
makes good, healthful bread, which is highly esteemed 
by the peasantry of Germany. It produces about thirty 
bushels per acre; but the production may be greatly 
increased by deep and thorough tillage. 



CHAPTER LXIX. 



THE manage:jent of the hay crop. 

We now come to the grasses grown for their herbage. 
There are many kinds of grasses indigenous to the land 
in the United States. It is now a well-established fact, 
that while the flowering stems are shooting up, 
every species of grass abounds with saccharine 
matter; but, as the seeds approach to ripeness, the 
sugar is converted into woody fiber, while the 
gluten goes to form the seed. From this fact wo arrive 
at the conclusion, that all grasses intended for hay lose 
their nourishing qualities if permitted to form 
their seed. By the digestive organs of ruminating 
animals the woody fiber is supposed to be reconverted 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 145 

into the substances from which it was formed, and thus 
becomes nutritive. Boiling food for cattle is also con- 
sidered an unnecessary and profitless labor, 
because of the digestive organs being capable of cook- 
ing the food in a manner more suitable to the rumi- 
nating animals' requirements than can be done by the 
art of man. 

The proper time to cut meadow grass for hay is, 
undoubtedly, while it is in bloom, as the saccharine 
juices are then most abundant. If the cutting be 
delayed, the grass becomes withered at the bottom of 
the stems; the roots are thus injured, the after-growth 
is very much lessened, and the land greatly 
impoverished. 

The great object to be attained in this work is, to 
have the hay preserved in the condition as nearly like 
the grass as possible, using great care in having it 
retain all its soluble matters in their completeness. In 
the process of making hay it will be of advantage to 
pay particular attention to the following points: 

(1) Preserve as much as possible from rain and 
dews; for the soluble matters are easily washed out 
of hay. 

(3) Do not disturb it in wet weather; alternate 
wetting and drying makes hay worthless. 

(3) Scorching destroys its virtues, fragrance, and 
color, and causes it to become Avoody and brittle. 

(4) It is necessary that the hay be dry, to prevent 
heating; the sugar is then changed into alcohol and 
carbonic acid, which may be detected by an odor 
coming from the stack resembling that from a brewery. 

Ensilage is grass or provender of any kind preserved 
in a greQn state Avith all its juices complete. The 
green plants are generally chaffed, and placed in an air- 
tight pit or building, called a silo, and are packed down 



140 ELEMENTS OF 

solidly, as they are being put into the pit, layer by layer. 
The ensilage is then covered tightly -with boards, upon 
Avhich a heavy weight is placed. The most convenient 
weights for this purpose are empty barrels, so arranged 
as to distribute the weight evenly, and then fill them 
with water. 

The chief point aimed at in this process is to com- 
pletely shut out the air, with its oxygen, to pre- 
vent fermentation. 

The utility of the silo to the practical farmers of the 
United States is, to say the least, very doubtful. 
It may be safely left to amateur farmers to experi- 
ment with, who do not farm for profit. The 
farmer who will bestow as much labor and expens3 
in sheltering his fodder from the weather 
as lie would have to do in filling a silo, will be amply 
rewarded with the results. In Great Britain and Ire- 
land it may prove valuable to tlie farmers, because of 
the difficulty they experience in drying the hay in 
their dropsical atmosphere ; but with the dessi- 
cating air of this country, the conditions are quite 
different. 



CHAPTER LXX. 



CLOVER-HAY AND THE SHELTER OF YOUNG GRASS. 

Clover is an important fodder plant. There are 
several kinds, such as the red clover, tlie white clover, 
the Italian or crimson, the Swedish or Alsike, and 
the giant clover. A mixture of grasses and clover is 
frequently sown for pasture, or to be made into hay. 
Red clover is grown to precede wheat; its roots go deep 
into the soil, and bring up valuable plant food. 



SCIENTIFIC AND rRACTICAL AGKICULTURE. 147 

The roots have a most excellent effect upon the 
mechanical texture of the soil; binding its particles 
together, if too loose, and separating them, if too close; 
thus giving firmness without hardness— a con- 
dition so needful for the roots of wheat. The manure, 
also, from animals feeding on clover hay is nearly 
double the value for the land as that from timothy 
hay. We do not generally recognize the full value of 
this crop in its advantages to the soil. The time is 
approaching when the proper cultivation of the clover 
crop will be recognized as one of the greatest impor- 
tance for the successful and profitable cultivation of 
the soil. 

Clover hay is made in the same way as grass ; but 
great care must be taken not to shake or handle it 
much after it is dried, as the leaves are then very 
brittle, and much of the fodder may thus be lost. 

Before closing the subject of grasses, we may give a 
successful experiment made by an English farmer, which 
contains some valuable information. He observed how 
freely vegetation is continued through the winter or 
early spring when the surface was shielded by any 
loose material lying upon it. He found that if a 
board, or any other loose material, was supported within 
an inch of the surface, an increase of growth resulted. 
StraAv, bushes, or any other similar material, produced 
the same result. Wheat straw applied over young 
grass, at the rate of about a ton or a ton and a-lialf per 
acre, in a very short time will increase the growth of 
grass to a wonderful extent. 

One of the experiments was as follows: 

COVERED LAND. UNCOVERED LAND. 
* 

Produce Por Acre. Produce Per Acre. 

Grass cut May 15 5,870 pounds. 2,307 pounds. 

Clover cut June 2 3,4G0 '• 900 " 



148 ELEMENTS OF 

An increased number of experiments tended to con- 
firm the preceding results. 

We may give another example showing the beneficial 
effects of shielding the soil, when the young clover 
plant is growing, from the fierce rays of the summer 
sun. Frederick Tepe, of West Elizabeth, in Allegheny 
county, Pennsylvania, became the owner of a piece of 
land near that place which had been plowed and 
cropped by its previous owner until its producing 
power Avas gone. The land was hilly and the soil a 
stiff clay overlying limestone. The seeds sown would 
germinate well enough; but the hot rays of the 
sun killed all the vegetation on the land. Mr. 
Tepe set about i")reparing this land for a crop, and 
labored diligently to obtain a good seed-bed. His 
neighbors kindly tried to dissuade him from the 
attempt, assuring him that it would grow nothing; 
and, nodding their heads to one another, pitied "the 
foolish Dutchman." He heeded them not; he had faith 
in all he was doing; and, with the patience and tenacity 
of purpose characteristic of his nation, he kept on in 
the even tenor of his way. When he was ready, he 
sowed his clover seed, and afterwards began collecting 
all the straw he could find, which he spread thinly 
but evenly over the field. This shelter to the 
young plant proved to bo sufficient, and he was 
rewarded with a generous crop of clover and the 
restoration of his land to a fertile condition. 



CHAPTER LXXI. 



Implements for harvesting crops. 

Labor-saving implements for securing crops are 
very numerous. Those of American contrivance and 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTUKE. 149 

make are famed the world over for their excellence and 
adaptability to perform well the work for which they 
are designed. 

The limits of this work will not permit us to enter 
into the subject to the extent we would desire. We 
shall, however, devote a chapter or two to the history 
of the "Reaper and Binder" machine, because of its 
being entirely the invention and production of 
American farmers and mechanics, and also 
because it is the one labor-saving machine which has 
made it possible for the farmers of this country to 
compete successfully in the economical production of 
wheat with all the nations of the earth. 

Every nation which rose, or has risen, to importance 
since Rome was mistress of the world, has experimented 
with machines for reaping the cereals, but never suc- 
ceeded in making a practically useful one. To Cyrus 
Hall McOormick, of Rockbridge county, Va., and 
Oden Hussey, of Baltimore, Md., belong the honor 
of producing the first practically useful mowing 
and reaping machines in the world. From 
these all reaping and mowing machines of the present 
day are evolved. The father of McCormick was en- 
gaged for several years experimenting with a reaping 
machine of his own invention, and tried it on his own 
wheat crop. This machine ^vas pushed along in front 
of the horses, like the Scotch machine of Bell, which 
was brought out in 1826. McCormick improved on 
his father's inventions, and brought out a machine 
about 1833 that had the following features: (1) The 
horses were in front, and the cutting apparatus pro- 
jected at the side. (2) The cutter was a reciprocating 
straight sickle, moved laterally by a crank. (3) Fingers 
projecting forward supported the grain while being 
cut. (4) The standing grain was leaned to the sickle 



150 



ELEMENTS OF 



and finger-bur by a revolving "vvhcol. (5) Tlie grain 
was received on a platform, and raked from tlicre in 
bundles. (G) A divider at the extremity of the finger- 
board separated the grain to be cut from the standing 
portion. Nearly all these features were original in this 
machine. The first public trial of reaping machines 
was made in the neighborhood of Eichmond, Ya., in 
1843, between the McCormick and Ilussey machines, 
the only practically useful reaping machines then in 
the world. 

Through the kindness of a friend we arc enabled to 
present to you a drawing of the original Ilussey 
machine. The merits of these machines were very 
quickly recognized, and were Avitliout competitors for 
several years. 




TUE OIUGIXAL UUSSEY KEAl'EK. 

The restless spirit of enterprise and advancement 
inherent in the American breast at length was turned 
to consider the faulty points, such as the unbalanced 
side draft, the narrow swatli, the galling weight on the 
neck, and the heavy draft, which, in a few years, were all 
remedied by several inventors. The machine, thus 
improved, did good work; but it was faulty in its 
economy; it required one raker, generally seven or eight 
binders, two shockers, and one driver, to secure about 
twelve acres per day. Think of the great labor to the 



SCIENTIFIC AND PKACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 151 



fanner's wife, and the expense of feeding all these 
hands through harvest. 



CHAPTER LXXII. 

THE REAPING MACHINE. 

Less manual labor to secure the harvest became 
the necessity of the day. One inventor produced a 
reaper which cut off the heads of wheat Avith a few 
inches of straw. It was called a header. But it proved 
to be wasteful, and was entirely inoperative in tangled 
and reclining grain, and was soon generally abandoned. 
Another brought out a self-raker, which was successful, 
so far as the saving of one hand was concerned. 
Another made a machine Avliich carried the binders, 
and, by an ingenious contrivance, the wheat was 
brought to the two binders, where they stood on the 
platform attached to the machine provided for that pur- 
pose, who were sufficient to do the binding, thus making 
a greater saving in labor than any preceding reaper. 
We cannot wonder that the farmers considered this 
machine, at that time, perfection. The restless spirit 
of the inventors, however, were not yet satisfied; the 
investigation was continued, and, after much thought 
and labor, their efforts were finally crowned with 
success; and they have now brought out machines 
which both reap and bind the grain better than it was 
ever done by hand; and, by them, the necessity of 
manual labor was reduced to the minimum. One man 
with a team of horses can reap and bind Avith this 
machine from fifteen to twenty acres each day. 

The material at first used for binding Avas Avire; but 
it Avas objectionable for tAvo reasons: (1) In threshing 
the grain some of the wire Avas broken into small pieces 



153 ELEMENTS OF 

by the tlireslier, and got among the straw, which proved 
Imrtful to the stock which fed at the straw stack in 
winter. (2) Small fragments of the wire also got 
amongst the grain as it came from the thresher, which 
caused much annoyance to tlie miller by getting betAveen 
the burrs. These faults Avere completely overcome by 
changing the binder, so as to use cord instead of the 
wire. 

The farmer can now procure a reaj)ing and binding 
machine Avhich will do satisfactory Avork, and reduce 
the cost of harA'esting to the loAvest point possible, if 
he exercises skill in selecting it, and afteiAvards in its 
management. 

CHAPT ER LXXIII. 

IMPORTAKT POINTS OF ECONOMY IN A MACHINE. 

In reaping machines, as in every other implement for 
use on the farm, there are some superior to others. In 
selecting a machine the farmer should be careful to see 
that it is adapted to the land upon Avhicli it is to be 
used. If his land be hilly and uneven, a loAA'-doAVn 
binder may serve him best, because its centre of gravity 
is nearer to the ground than one Avhosc Avorks are liigh, 
and is, on this account, less liable to tilt on the hillside, 
and will also operate with less strain of the gearings on 
an uneven surface. If, on the other hand, his land be 
level, he may choose an elevator binder, Avith a breadth 
of cut suitable to the horse-poAA*er at his command. 

It Avill be to his interest also to satisfy himself upon 
the folloAving essential points of the machine at the 
time he selects it: 

(1) That the best material in every part of its con- 
struction has been used, bearing in mind that the Aveak 
part of any machine determines the strength and dura- 
bility of the Avhole. 



SCIENTIFIC AXD PEACTICAL AGRICULTUKE. 153 

(3) That the mechanical principles are correct, and 
the workmanship, to the minutest detail, is well done. 
Correct mechanical principles produce simplicity, and 
minimize friction. 

(3) That the cutting apparatus, and the machinery 
to take the grain to the hinder, is suited for the work. 

(4) That the gearing is well protected from mud 
and straw. 

(5) That the knot-tying apparatus is durable and 
exact in its work. 

(6) That the machine can make bundles, any size 
desired, automatically. 

(7) That it can be adjusted to suit short or tall 
grain without Avaste. 

(8) That the machine is well-balanced throughout. 
There are other points of economy worthy of the 

farmer's attention — for example, in the quantity of cord 
used in binding, and the amount of travel required to 
do a certain amount of work. 

The cord, when around a bundle, takes the form of a 
circle 5 the saving in twine, by a machine Avhich 
binds a certain sized bundle, over one which binds 
according to the space traveled, without regard to 
the close or scattering condition of the stand, will 
be made evident when we solve the following problems : 

(1) How much more water will flow from a pipe 
with an opening one inch in diameter than from a pipe 
one-fourth inch in diameter? Answer. Sixteen times 
as much. 

(2) How much more wheat can a string bind which 
makes a circle having a diameter of two feet than a 
string having a diameter of one foot? Answer. Four 
times. 

(3) If horses have to travel two hundred miles to cut 
one hundred acres, with a machine cutting four feet 



154 ELEMENTS OF 

"wklo, how far will they require to trcavel to cut the 
same number of acres with a machine cutting five feet 
wide? Answer. One hundred and sixty miles. 

(4) If, in twenty-four miles travel, a machine cutting 
four feet wide reaps twelve acres, how inany acres will 
a machine cut in traveling the same distance reaping 
five feet wide? Answer. Fifteen acres. 

If a farmer selects a reaper and binder, in which the 
above points of quality and economy are combined, he 
will be relieved from much vexation, and derive both 
pleasure and profit; even if he had to pay more money 
for it, at first, than for an inferior one, it was economy 
to do so. 

We cannot close this chapter without noticing the 
mowing machine, which also has been greatly improved 
in late years, and is a valuable labor-saving machine. 

A few years ago many deplorable accidents happened 
to the drivers every haying season, when the cutting 
apparatus was placed behind tlie driving-wheel, by 
being accidentally thrown from the seat, and falling in 
front of the knives. The seat of the driver is now 
placed in the rear of the driving-wheel, and the cutting 
apparatus to the front; consequently, if the driver 
should be accidentally thrown from his seat, he fiills 
behind the knives, and the deplorable result is avoided. 



CHAPTER LXXIV. 



SOME OF THE PESTS OF THE FARM. 

We will noAV consider some of the enemies of the 
farmer, which injure his crops. Tlie animal and 
vegetable kingdoms bring forth pests, which re- 
(piire the farmer to be on the alert and wage constant 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 155 

and unceasing war with tlieni or they will frustrate 
every endeavor of his to make farming pay. 

Weeds and fungi are his vegetable enemies. As 
dirt is matter out of place, so a weed is a vegetable 
growing in the wrong place. Weeds require light, air, 
and plant-food; therefore, if they grow Avith the crop, 
they become competitors for all these things; and as 
Aveeds are generally stronger, broader-leaved, and longer- 
rooted than the plants of the crop, they are able to 
overcome them, and cause them to become weak, sick, 
and worthless; in short, weeds are robbers. 

Some weeds tell the farmer by their presence that 
the soil is thin and poor, as wire-grass and jiennyroyal; 
others, that the land needs lime, as sorrel; others, that 
the soil is wet and requiring to be drained, as rushes, 
sedges, and buttercups; while others tell the people 
who pass that way that the occupant of the land is lazy 
and thriftless, such as the nettle, the dock, the jimson, 
and the thistle. Weeds should never be allowed to 
ripen their seed. They should be cut down or uprooted 
at once. The weeds, against which the farmer has to 
war, form a very large army, and belong to different 
families. 

Fungi are plants of the same order as the mush- 
room, but they are so small that we can only see their 
individual form by the microscope. Mould, mil- 
dew, smut, bunt, and rust are simply fungi. 
Mould and mildew form dark spots and rust red spots 
on the plant, which cause it to sicken, droop, and die; 
bunt and smut fill the ears of wheat and other cereals 
with a black powdery substance in place of the grain. 
Fungi are generally encouraged by damp and shade. 
The seed of wheat is generally steeped in a weak 
solution of the sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) before 
sowing, to rid it of fungi spores, which may be 
attached to it from the previous crop. 



156 ELEMENTS OF 

Lund subjected to n good, rotation of crops is 
kept compjiratively clean, and the labor of tiie farmer 
is greatly lessened in clearing liis land of Aveeds by a 
judicious course of crops. 



CHAPTER LXXV. 



THE INSECT PESTS OF THE FARM. 

The great majority of the animal pests of the farm 
are insects. Birds do a great deal more good than 
harm. In places from Avhence birds had been banished 
insects increased, and the birds are now universally 
protected and encouraged to remain. 

The cut-worm is very destructive to young plants; it 
is the grub of the fly known generally as the "jenny 
spinner." It is best to push the young plant by giving 
it a stimulating fertilizer, such as guano, or any nitro- 
genous manure, to get it past the period when its young 
roots are just beginning to get food from the soil. The 
wire-worm is one of the most destructive of all the 
insect tribe, as it lives several years in the soil, and 
destroys the roots of every kind of crop. It is the 
grub of the small "click beetle," so named from its 
ability to right itself by making a spring with a sharp 
click when turned on its back. The grub is stiff, hard, 
and shiny, like a wire; hence its name. It has three 
pairs of legs near the head. By these six legs it is 
distinguished from other grubs, such as the thousand- 
legged grubs, which do no harm. After they have fed 
on the crops for three or four years, they change their 
state and come out "click beetles." The most effective 
remedy is deep cultivation and api^lying the heavy 
roller in the spring. 



SCIENTIFIC AJSTD PEACTICAL AGKICULTUllE. 157 

The turnip flea is the most destructive insect to 
turnips and young cabbages. They are little, shiny 
black beetles, having strong wings and legs, and can 
hop a long distance; hence their name. They feed 
upon the young seed-leaves of cabbages and turnips. 
AVhen none of these plants are convenient, they feed 
upon others of the same family growing wild about the 
fences. Thus, again, we are reminded of the need of 
cleanliness in every part of the fiirm, the keeping down 
of weeds, and the clearance of every waste matter from 
the fields. A good moist seed-bed and a stimulating 
manure will enable the plant to get out of their way. 

The "chinch" bug is probably the most destructive 
insect to the wheat and corn crops in a large portion of 
the Middle and Western States. These insects appear 
early in spring, and are sometimes found in myriads at 
the junction of the stem and root of the young wheat. 
They first appear as wee, tiny mites, when they are of a 
reddish brown color ; they afterwards grow darker, and 
then mature to a brown-like midge. When bruised 
they give forth a very oflfensive odor, like the insect 
generally known as the bed-bug; hence their name. 
Before they get wings they are very destructive to corn 
and wheat by feeding on their juices. We have seen 
whole crops rendered nearly worthless by these pests. 
No remedy has yet been discovered to stop their 
progress when they have once taken possession of a 
crop. They are found wintering among the blue grass 
in the hedge-rows, and among leaves and straw. Here 
again Ave are reminded of the necessity of thorough 
cleanliness all around the fields, and the advantage of a 
Avire fence, which, we believe, is destined to become the 
fence of the future. 

]\Iany other causes, as v.cll as the pests Ave have 
named, render farming unprofitable — some of Avhich 



158 ELEMENTS OF 

may bo summarized as follows: Xot nnderslanding the 
business of farming; insufficient capital for the number 
of acres farmed; extravagance in personal expenditure; 
buying on credit; not suiting crops to soil and climate; 
too many weeds; too little hoeing; too shallow culti- 
vation; too little purchased food; using antiquated and 
improper implements; insufficient shelter for live stock; 
too little experience and too much prejudice; selling 
produce on credit to unsafe persons; carelessness in the 
selection of seeds; being behind in tillage, sowing, and 
the general work of the farm; and not taking and read- 
ing a reliable agricultural paper, or any literature on 
tlie subject of his business. 

Finally, by deep and thorough tillage, and 
drainage where necessary; a judicious rotation 
of crops; a wise selection of ripe, clean, and 
healthy seed, suitable to soil and climate; 
clearing the land completely of weeds, old 
straw piles, and rubbish of every kind, and 
giving them back to the soil as a manure ; the 
judicious application of manure; the careful manage- 
ment of the barn-yard manure heap, and never over- 
looking he, wants of a crop from the time it is 
put into the ground till it is harvested, the 
farmer may expect, with almost absolute certainty, 
to realize pleasure and profit, and secure the 
blessings of Ceres, as expressed in the inimitable 
language of Shakespeare: 

"Earth's increase, foison plenty, 
Barns and garners never empty. 
Vines with clustering bunches growing, 
Plants with goodly burthen bowing; 
Spring come to you at the farthest 
In the A-ery end of liarvest ! 
Scarcity and want shall shun you, 
Ceres blesshig so is on yon." 



SCIEi^TIFIC AKD PRACTICAL AGRICULTUEE. 159 



CHAPTER LXXVI. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



VENTILATION, DURABILITY OF TIMBER, WEIGHTS, AND 

MEASURES. 

Although tlie construction of farm buildings does 
not come within the scope of this work, Ave shall ven- 
ture a suggestion on the very important subject of 
ventilation, the value of which cannot be overestimated. 
Men and animals absorb oxygen from the atmosphere, 
and give off carbonic acid. Plants absorb carbonic acid 
and give off oxygen. That which would be death to 
the one gives life to the other. The health of ourselves 
and our animals requires a system of ventilation which 
permits the carbonic acid to escape. To destroy the 
equilibrium of the atmosphere in a building, and then 
control its efforts to equalize, are the objective points to 
be reached, in order to obtain a plentiful and healthful 
supply of air. There can be no robust health enjoyed 
by animated beings Avhcre the air is stagnant; and, on 
the other hand, the health of animals is endangered if 
they be exposed to drafts of air; therefore the neces- 
sity for procuring the admission of fresh air and the 
egress of impure air without a perceptible draft. 

Farmers in building a barn, as a general rule, believe 
that they have secured a sure and reliable ventilation 
by an elevation in the roof, Avhose sides have louvre 
boards to keep out the rain, and admit air freely. Let 
those who believe that they have thus accomplished the 
task go up and examine, and they will find that the 



IGO ELEMENTS OF 

wind passes straight through, Avhile the air below the 
bottom board of liis ventihitor is stagnant. But let him 
pnt in a dividing-board, or partition, extending ver- 
tically from the top to about one foot below the lowest 
opening of the ventilator, and the change will astonish 
him. On the one side he will feel the cool air coming 
in and descending, and on the other side he will feel an 
ascending current of inii)ure air making its escape. 
No such action takes place in an undivided opening, 
and no such ventilation is secured without draft. 

DURABILITY OF TIMBEK. 

The durability of timber is also of much importance 
to the farmer. A few observations on the subject may 
not be out of place. All plants consist of two sub- 
stances — the one cellular, the other fibro-vascular. The 
former is composed of roundish cells, the latter of long 
tubes; both are termed tissue by physiologists. The 
cellular tissue is brittle, like the pith in the elder; the 
fibro-vascular is tough and strong, as in hemp fiber. 
Timber consists of these two tissues intermixed, and 
when it grows slowly is more cellular than fibro-vascu- 
lar. There is never expansion of the fibro-vascular 
parts; their aggregate number is only increased. For 
example, suppose a stick an inch in diameter to con- 
tain five hundred tubes; if the conditions for its growth 
had been so favorable that it had grown twice as fast, it 
would not have expanded those tubes, but would have 
added five hundred more; therefore, fiist-grown timber 
is not weak because it grew quickly, and it would not 
have been stronger if it had grown more slowly. 
Spring felling of timber, especially of deciduous trees, 
is highly injurious to the durability of the lumber; for 
the tree is then full of sap, which makes the process of 
seasoning not only very tedious, but, when dried, the 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 161 

germs of fungi find the conditions in it very favorable 
for their development, and cause decay, which is known 
commonly as "dry rot." Durability depends greatly 
on the time of felling the tree, the kind of soil on 
which it grew, the nature of its growth, and general 
management. Pruning, early and judiciously per- 
formed, will increase the quality, dimensions, and nlti- 
mate value of the tree. Thinning will insure "the 
survival of the fittest." 

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 

In England the unit of all weights was originally a 
grain of wheat taken out of the middle of the ear and 
dried, thirty-two of which weighed a silver penny; the 
pennyweight was afterwards divided into twenty-four 
equal parts, still called grains. There are 5,760 grains 
in a troy pound, and 7,000 in an avoirdiqwis pound. 
A cubic inch of rain-water weighs 252.458 such grains, 
when the temperature is sixty-two degrees by Fahren- 
heit's thermometer and the barometer thirty inches. 

In measuring lines, the brass rod made by Bird in 
1760, now in the custody of the clerk in the House of 
Commons, in England, is the standard from which all 
the lineal measures are taken in this country. It is 
thirty-six inches in length, each inch being the 39i part 
of a pendulum vibrating seconds of mean time in a 
vacuum at sea-level, with the thermometer at sixty-two 
degrees and the barometer thirty inches. It is a 
remarkable coincidence that a pendulum vibrating 
seconds corresponds almost exactly with the French 
metre. If all the standards of weights and measures 
were lost, they could be restored by the pendulum 
vibrating seconds under the above conditions. 

The standard measure of capacity is a vessel holding 
ten pounds iavoirchqms) of rain-water, which contains 



162 ELEMENTS Of 

one gallon, or 277.2738 cubic inches. The gill weighs 
five such ounces, and contains 8.6049 cubic inches. 
Farmers wish sometimes to know how many plants, 
or corn hills, or trees an acre will contain when placed 
certain distances apart. The process of finding the 
number is easy. Multiply the distance one plant is 
from another in the row by the distance between the 
rows, and divide the area of an acre by the product; 
the quotient will be the number sought. Suppose we 
wish to know the number of plants in an acre, the 
plants being placed one foot apart; or the number of 
corn-hills, placed three and a-half feet apart; or the 
number of trees, placed thirty feet apart in the rows, 
and forty feet between the rows. The answers will bo 
found as follows : 

Square feet In 
an acre. 

435G0 -^ (1x1) 1 = 43500 plants in an acre set one foot apart. 

43500 -|- (3Js3^) 12^= 3555 corn hills in an acre set 3 J feet apart. 

43500 4- (30x40) 1200 = 30 trees in an acre set 30 feet from 

each other in the row, and the rows 40 feet apart. 

GOVERNMENT LANDS. 

The lands of the United States are surveyed into 
rectangular portions, bounded by lines running with 
the cardinal points of the compass. 

A parallel of latitude and a meridian are first estab- 
lished. Lines are then run six miles apart each way, 
which division constitutes a township, and contains 
generally thirty-six square miles. A line of townships 
extending north and south is called a range. Ranges 
are designated by their number, east or west of a 
certain principal meridian. Townships in each range 
are designated by tlieir number north or south of the 
parallel of latitude, called a base-line. 



BCIEITTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICtJLTUEE. 163 

Townships are sub-divided into sections, half sec- 
tions, quarter sections, half-quarter sections, and 
quarter-quarter sections. 

Diagram No. 1 shows the sub-division of a township 
into sections, and how they are numbered. 

Diagram No. 2 shows the division of a section, and 
how they are designated. 

A township equals sis miles by six miles=thirty-six square 

miles, or 23,040 acres. 

A section is one square mile=640 acres. 

One-half section =320 " 

One-half of ^ section 160 " 

One-half of I " = 80 " 

One-quarter of ^ section = 40 " 

The earth's surface is convex. The principal me- 
ridians, therefore, converge as they extend northward, 
which tends to throw townships and sections out of 
square, and necessitates occasional lines of offset, called 
correction lines. 



w. 



TOWNSHIP. 

N. 



G 
7 

18 
19 
30 
31 


5 
8 

17 
20 
29 
32 


4 
9 
IG 
21 
28 
33 


3 

10 

15 
22 
27 
34 


2 
11 
14 
23 
26 
35 


1 
12 
13 
24 
25 
36 



w. 



E. 



SKCTIOX. 

N. 





hot I 


i 








'i 

% 


1 of Sec. 



The S. 'A of sec. 

The N.W. ^ of sec. 

The N. ^ of N.E. }i of sec. 

TheS.E^i^ofN.E.^ofaec. 



QUESTIONS IN TBE FIRST DIVISION. 



QUESTIONS OX THE PLAXT. 

What is the meaning of the term Agriculture? Give its 
derivation. Give the derivation of Horticulture. What sciences 
aid farmers in their business? What knowledge does each of 
these contribute? Do plants obtain all their food from the 
soil? From what source do they obtain the rest of their food? 
Describe a root and tell its uses. Describe a stem and give its 
uses. How does a plant take in nourishment ? Describe a leaf. 
What is a potato? When do flowers appear on a plant? 
Describe a flower. What is organic matter? What is inor- 
ganic matter? Can a plant be grown to perfection without 
putting it into the soil? Tell how you would do it. What 
three things are necessary to enable seed to grow? Describe a 
seed. Can solid substances be dissolved in water? Give 
familiar examples. How can you prove that one kind of liquid, 
although separated from another by a thin membrane which has 
no hole in it, pass through the one into the other? What is the 
most abundant substance in a growing plant? What per cent, 
of water is in grass? In turnips? In cabbage? Is water in a 
plant stationary ? Describe its passage through the plant, and 
how it gets out of the plant. Tell what you know about 
starch, sugar, oil, cellulose. Are these substances inter- 
changeable — that is, can starch become sugar in the plant? 
Tell us in what plant starch becomes sugar, and again changed 
back into starch. What is protoplasm? What is chlorophyl? 
Give the derivation of these words. Of what elements are they 
composed ? Why are these substances called organic ? 



SECOND DIVISION. 

How can you separate the organic and inorganic substances 
composing a plant ? Whicli part goes off in the air ? What 
becomes of the other? From whence were the organic sub- 
stances derived ? From whence the inorganic ? Name the ele- 



160 ELEMENTS OF 

mcnts composing each. What is the composition of pure air? 
What other substances are generally mixed in it? What is the 
chief duty to a plant performed by water? How can mineral 
substances be taken by a plant? Do plants feed direct upon 
the offensive matter put into the soil? Of what use is it then? 
From whence did tlie soil come? Give its history. Describe 
the first soil that appeared on the earth's surface. Tell us how 
rocks can be pulverizetl by nature's agents which have no iron 
in them. Describe soils according to their chemical condition. 
Explain capillary attraction. How are crops benefited by this 
natural law? Give some of the characters of soils. What is 
tlie best soil as lo its physical condition for a seed-bod? 
Describe soils according to their physical condition. What is 
humus? How do you account for tliere being sandy soils in 
one place, gravel in another, and clay soils in another? 



THIRD DIVISION. 



How may the analysis of the soil be advantageous to a farmer? 
What do you understand by the active and dormant portions of 
the soil ? How can a farmer render the dormant portion active ? 
Explain how this is brought about. Hov/ can a farmer increase 
the feeding ground of plants without extending the boundary 
lines? What other means beside tillage is adojtted to get air 
into the soil ? What are the effects of drainage \\\)on clay soils? 
How is the atmosphere warmed? What increases the power of 
the air to hold moisture ? What effect has this natural law in the 
summer time upon a country having a bare surface? State tlie 
chief objections which have been urged against subsoil drainage. 
Give your reasons for considering these objections untenable. 
How can the bad character of soils be cured or made better? 
What are the virtues of the double silicates? What kind of 
vegetation can only grow upon soil newly formed from rocks? 
What substance are found in a fertile soil that are not found 
in the primitive rocks? Where did they come from, and how 
did they get in the soil? Why does soil lose W'eight when 
burned? What does the lost weight lepresent? Explain how 
the first soil was prepared for the liigher class of vegetation. 
Why are clover crops valuable to the soil? How is a sandy soil 
benefited by clover? How is a clay soil benefited by clover? 
What is the best method of applying manure to light soils? 



SCIEl^TIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 167 

FOURTH DIVISION. 

WuAT substance in our soils is most abundant? Why aro 
the phosphates so valuable to all soils? What substance is 
generally found united with silica? Is it found among the 
ashes of plants? Then what is its use to vegetation ? Suppose 
plant food to be abundant in the soil, poisonous matters absent, 
and climate suitable, what is yet required to develop the capa- 
bilities of the soil ? Explain what you mean by proper tillage. 
To what has Liebig compared the operation of the plow? 
What agencies are always ready to help the farmer, which 
require neither pay nor rest ? Explain the action of each. Do 
plants receive any free nitrogen from the air ? How does the 
common earth-worm benefit the farmer ? Give your reasons for 
taking spade cultivation as the model. Describe a plow pan ; a 
lime pan; an iron pan. What docs the Scotch farmer some- 
times use as a subsoil plow ? Give your reasons in favor of a 
steam plow. What other implements are used in cultivation? 
Explain the use of each. What are the three essential require- 
ments for the germination of seed ? Explain these. Give your 
reasons for the necessity of a dry seed-bed. Why should the 
fine soil be closely pressed around the seed ? 



FIFTH DIVISION. 

Op how many elements is the world and all that is therein 
built up? How many of these are metals? What are the 
other fifteen ? How many elements are of importance to agri- 
culture ? How many of these are metals ? What element forms 
the cliief part of all plants ? What element forms nearly half 
the substance of the whole globe? What proportion of the air 
is nitrogen? Which is the lightest of all the elements? Name 
tlie metals useful to agricultural crops. IIow are acid-oxides 
formed? Name the bases. Hoav is a salt formed ? What salt 
is formed by the direct union of two elements? What is quick- 
lime? How is quicklime affected when exposed to the air? 
Why do masons cover lime after slaking it? What is the most 
valuable salt that can be applied to the land ? Give your reasons. 
What causes dissolution of plants and animals after death? 
To what substances are the softer parts reduced? If decay 



168 ELEMENTS OF 

takes place on the surface, what becomes of the gases ? If in 
the ground, what becomes of them? "What becomes of their 
mineral substances? Do plants feed upon decaying matter 
direct? What cliangcs must it undergo before they will accept 
it? What plants feed upon decaying matter direct ? Describe 
a "fairy ring" and tell what causes it. IIow can a farmer aid 
the chemical changes in the soil? 



SIXTH DIVISION. 



When is a soil said to be exhausted? Give the causes of ex- 
haustion. How can fertility be restored ? Why does exhaustion 
not take place in forests and prairies i)lanted by nature? How 
may exhaustion be delayed for a long time ? How many pounds 
of inorganic matter are removed from an acre by an average 
of wheat, turnips, or clover? What are the remedies for ex- 
haustion? What is meant by fallow? Why is it not advan- 
tageous to keep a light, open soil fallow? What are the most 
profitable crops for this location ? What is meant by a rotation 
of crops? Give a four years' course, and your reasons for its 
selection. What principles must guide you in determining 
upon a rotation of crops? What practical considerations favor 
a rotation of crops ? 



SEVENTH DIVISION. 

What is the great remedy for exhaustion? Wliat do you 
understand by the term manure? What are the three principal 
modes in which manure acts? Give the special advantages 
derived from green manure, barn-yard manure, lime manures, 
artificial manures. Docs the sheltering of baru-yard manure 
pay? What is its great feature as a manure? How much solu- 
ble plant-food is in a ton of barn-yard manure ? Do artificial 
manures meet all the requirements of tlie soil? How may 
barn-yard manure be enriched? What informs the farmer that 
the manure heap is losing ammonia? State how ho can avoid 
the evil. Give Lord Kinaird's experience with sheltered and 
xmsheltered manure. What is a compost heap? Give Thouve- 
nel's method of producing the nitrate of potash. What would 
be the effect of applying lime and barn-yard manure together on 



SCIEKTIFIC AND PIIACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 169 

the surface of the land? Give a summary of the effects of lime 
to the soil. What are artificial manures? What is guano? 
From -what other sources besides bones do we get phosphates? 
What manures supply plants with albumen, gluten, and casein ? 
What is the most important influence of common salt? Why 
is tanners' bark not valued by farmers ? How can sawdust be 
rendered very serviceable? With what is guano generally 
adulterated ? With what is bone-meal adulterated ? How can 
the adulteration be detected ? 



EIGHTH DIVISION. 

What qualities should seed possess ? Wliy is turnip seed 
better for a crop when it is two years old than one year old ? 
Explain how moisture finds its way into seeds. What is the 
effect of seed becoming "dirty?" Trace the germination of a 
grain of wheat till it becomes a plant able to get food for itself. 
Trace in the same manner the germination of a pea, and a 
turnip seed, and state what is peculiar to each. Give the uses 
of roots to plants, and tell how they go down into the soil. 
What is the effect of a hai-d and close subsoil ? What does this 
teach the farmer? Describe the stem and its uses. What 
organs prepare the food taken in by the plant for assimilation ? 
Describe a leaf and its uses. Can we tell how a leaf manufac- 
tures the food for assimilation ? Describe the manufacture of 
sugar in a beet. Describe the flower of a turnip, a pea, and 
wheat. What is meant by cross-fertilization ? Why do some 
plants have bright flowers ? What is the end and aim of the 
entire life of a plant ? 



NINTH DIVISION. 

When are the stem and leaves of a plant at their richest? 
Name some plants which the farmer allows to complete their 
round of existence, and some which he does not. What is 
meant by pedigree seed? To what family do wheat, corn, oats, 
rye, and barley belong? To what family do the cabbage, 
turnip, and mustard belong ? To what family do the beet and 
celery belong? To what family do the carrot and parsnip 
belong? What is the derivation of the word cereal? What 



170 liLEMENTS OP 

crop may bo consulorcd tlio Klicct-aiiclior of A morictm farmers? 
Why? Describe the habits of the -wheat plant. What is the 
best cultivation for it? Explain the process of tillering. 
When is the best time to cut wheat for milling purposes? 
When for seed? Give your reasons. When is the best time 
for manuring for wheat? What is meant by a change of seed? 
When is the best time to cut grass for hay? Why ? Give four 
particular points that should never bo overlooked by a farmer 
in making liay. What is a silo? What is ensilage? What is 
the use of the silo? In what countries may it prove profitable? 
Why may it not bo profitable to the farmers of the United 
States? Give some points of excellence obtained by the grow- 
ing of a clover croji. Relate the experience of a farmer who 
covered the young grass lightly with straw in winter. 



TENTH DIVISION. 



Foii what are American agricultural implements noted every- 
where ? Who produced the first practically useful reaping 
macliines? Trace the improvements of these machines to the 
present day. Give your reasons for believing that the reaper 
and binder inachine is the most valuable implement ever given 
to the American farmer. When should a farmer select a low- 
down reaping machine? What should govern a farmer in 
selecting a reaping and binding machine as to its breadth of 
cut? Name so:ne of the points of excellence never to be over- 
looked in selecting a reaper or any other farm implement. 
What particular point must the farmer not overlook in selecting 
a mower? Whv? 



ELEVENTH DIVISION. 

Name some of the pests of the farm. To what kingdoms do 
they belong? What is a weed? Explain how weeds injure 
crops. What do some weeds tell the farmer? What weeds 
tell people who pass a farm that the occupant is lazy and 
thriftless? What are fungi? What encourages their growtli? 
Why is seed-wheat sometimes steeped in a weak solution of 
sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) before sowing? Are birds 
friends or enemies to farmers? Give your reasons. Uow can 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGEICULTURE. 171 

"Vve best escape the ravages of the cut-worm ? Describe a ■wire- 
worm. What is the most effective remedy for protecting crops 
against damage by insects? When may a farmer reasonably 
hope to be rewarded with good and profitable crops? Name 
some of the causes which render farming unprofitable. What 
is ventilation? Why is it a necessity in every building? Why 
is an undivided elevation in the roof worthless ? IIow can you 
remedy the fault? When is the best time to cut timber? 
Why? Why should it not be cut in the spring? If all the 
standards of weights and measures be lost, how could they be 
restored ? Explain how you could restore the inch ; the pint or 
gallon; the pound. 



VOCABULARY. 



Absorb, {absorlere, to swallow or drink up.) To drink up as a 
sponge. 

Agriculture, [ager, a field; cohre, to till.) The cnltivation of 
a field. 

Accumulated, {ac, to; cumulus, a mound or lieap.) Collected 
into a heap. 

Aerated, {aer, air.) Exposure to the free access of air; filled 
with air by force. 

Aliexated, (oZie?iflre, to remove; ate, to make.) Transferred 
to another; as the mineral substances contained in the 
wheat that is sold, being derived from the soil, are alien- 
ated or transferred. 

Alleviate, {al, to; levis, light.) To make a burden lighter or 
easier. 

Alliaxce, ■(«?%««, to bring together.) The union between 
individuals or substances. 

Analysis, (Gr. analuo, to unloose.) The resolving or sepa- 
rating of substances into their elements. 

Animated, (ammus, life ; a(ed, made.) Possessing life and voli- 
tion; able to move from place to place. 

Artificial, (ars, art ; facere, to make ; al, belonging to.) Any- 
thing made by the art or skill of man. 

Arable, (arare, to plow; hie, fit to be.) Land capable of 
being plowed. 

Assimilate, {as, to ; similis, like ; ale, to make.) To make into 
a like substance ; as food is converted into the likeness of 
the component parts of the animal or vegetable taking it. 

Automatical, (Gr. automatos, self-acting; al, pertaining to.) 
Machinery which controls its own movements is said to act 
automatically. 

Avail, («, on; valere, to be strong.) To be strong, so as to 
give help ; to be of advantage. 

Biennial, {hi, two; annus, a year; al, belonging to.) Pertain- 
ing to two years; a plant which completes its course of 
existence in two years. 

Blanched, {hlanc, white.) Whitened, as the leaves of a plant 
when light is excluded. 

Calcareous, {calx, lime; ous, abounding with.) Abounding 
with lime. 



174 VOCABULARY. 

Capillary, (capillus, .a hair; ari/. pcrtainiiif;: to.) Hesemljlinj!; 

a hair; a tube with an opcniii,t,' niiuute in diameter, though 

long, as in the hair of the head. 
CiLVRCrED, literally means to lay on a load; loaded. Cargo, 

car, carriage, cart, chariot, etc., come from the same root, 

and convey a similar notion. 
Chaut, (Or, Jcar/es, i^ijier made froni the Egyptian ])a)iyrus.) 

A writing. [This term is ajiplied to a marine map, having 

])orts and places on the coast located with precision.] 
Chemical, (Gr. Immilcos, concerning juices.) When diiTercnt 

l)odics unite, not mix, as sugar and water, they are said to 

be chemically united. 
CuLoiiopHVL, [chJoros, light-green; jiJiulon, a leaf.) Vegetable- 

groen, caused by llio action of the sun upon the jelly-like 

substance found in every living plant. 
CoxJUXCTiON, [con, together ; jundum, joined.) Joined together, 

or closely connected. 
CoNTixuous, [con, together ; ienere, to hold.) Holding together ; 

uninterrupted succession. 
Converted, {vertere, to turn.) Turned or changed from one 

substance into another ; as starch is turned to sugar in a 

plant by a process of nature iinknown to man. 

Credible, {credere.io believe ; We, fit to be.) Fit to be believed ; 
worthy of belief. 

Crucifer^e, [cntx, a cross ; ferre, to bear.) Plants having the 
four petals of their flowers in the form of a cross ; the 
turnip and cabbage belong to the family cruciferte. 

Cultivation, (ct^Z/mh!, tilled; ^joh, the act of doing.) The vari- 
ous processes employed to break and mix the soil to enable 
the air to enter it and render available the plant food in it, 
and also to enable the roots to grow in all directions with- 
out hindrance in their search for nourishment. 

Decade, (Gr. delxa, ten.) A period of ten years. 

Decay, {de, down; cadere, to fall.) The falling down of a 
body, either animal or vegetable, in its progression to 
dissolution. 

Deciduous. Falling down. Trees which shed their leaves in 
autumn are known as deciduous trees. 

Deleterious, {dclere, to destroy; ous, full of.) Very destruc- 
tive ; anything hurtful cr injurious. 

Delicate, {delicia, pleasing to the senses.) Beautifully fine. 

Demolition, [de, down; Sax. wiooif, meal.) Reduced to fine- 
ness, like meal. Mould, mill, melder, (Ger. miiller,) melt, 
etc., are from the same root and convey the same notion. 

Descends, (Je, down; scandere, to climb.) Passes from a 
liigher to a lower place. 



VOCABtTLARY. l75 



Desiccating, (deskcare, to dry up.) Drying up; as air, not 
having its due proportion of moisture, absorbs water. 

Destructiox, {destruciio, a pulling down.) The changing of 
the form of a body into another form. [In referring to the 
soil and animal or vegetable bodies, it never means annihi- 
lation, as it does when speaking of laws and constitutions.] 

Dextrine, {de.rier, the right hand.) The clear, gum-like sub- 
stance made from starch; so named because its solution 
directs a polarized ray of light to the right hand when it 
passes through it. (C. G, II. 10, 0. 5.) 

Diastase. A substance which is developed by germination, 
which has the remarkable property of changing starch into 
dextrine, and, ultimately, into sugar. The great aim in 
the malting process is to produce this diastase. Malting 
barley should contain abundance of starch and the germ 
largely developed. 

Diffuse, {diffundere, to scatter.) The spreading of a hquid in 
every direction; as water, in a well-drained clay loam 
soil, is diffused in that kind of soil like mist or fog in 
the air. 

Diminish, {diminuere, to lessen.) To become gradually less. 

Disinfectant, {dis, not; infedum, tainted.) That which de- 
stroys poisonous exhalations or germs, such as sulphur 
fumes, chlorine from salt, and the silicates in clay. 

Dissolve, [dissoJvere, to take to pieces.) To change a solid sub- 
stance to a liquid form by water, acid, or heat. 

Dormant, {dormire, to sleep.) In a state of inactivity. A term 
applied to substances insoluble in the soil', but which may 
become soluble by proper cultivation. 

Ears. The top part; that part of certain kinds of plants 
which produces the flower and contains the seed. 

Earth, (Ileb. aradh, to gnaw; Sax. yerd, the soil.) The par- 
ticles eaten from the rocks, which constitute the mold or 
soil on the surface of the land. 

Enormous, (e, out of; norma, a rule; ous, much.) Much 
beyond the general rule. Applied to what is excessive in 
size or extent. 

Ensilage, {en, into; Fr. silo, a pit.) Crops put into a pit in 
a green state, firmly and closely packed, and air excluded. 

Evaporate, (e, out of; vapor, steam.) Water made to pass 
away in the form of steam. 

Exhausting, {exlumrlre, to empty.) Taking out all of a sub- 
stance ; making the soil barren. 

Fall. The time of year when the falling of leaves becomes 
general ; autumn. 

Ferreous, {ferrmn, iron; ous, full of.) Abounding witli iron 
in composition with other subtances. 



176 VOCABULARY. 

Febt'LE, (/e^o, to bear.) Fruitful; soil wliifli l)riiij?s forth 

crops abundantly. 
Fibers, [fihra, a thread). The fine, thread-like roots of plants ; 

or any thread-like substance. 
Foisox. Nutriment. [Some think the word is derived from tlie 

Latin /'Oif/o-/»,.s-(;, and to mean a pouring; hence, ahunduncc. 

In those localities where tlie Ant,'lo-Saxon lant^uage yet 

p»-evails it is used to sit,niify nutriment, or tliat whicii 

nourishment produces — dr'')iglh. When a turnip lias 

developed its cellular portion more rapidly than it could 

elaborate its nourisliing juices, it becomes corky ; they tiien 

say it is foisonless. When an aninuxl or plant is well 

nourished, they say it has foison in it ; hence, strength.'] 
Gas. An elastic aeriform fluid. Guest, ghost, gccst are from 

the same root, conveying the notion of airy s])irits. In this 

sense the soul was regarded as the guest of tiie body. 
Genus, {pi. genera, a race or family.) A group of plants 

which agree as regards the organs of fructification and 

reproduction and a general resemblance of habit. 
Geology, (Gr. ^e, the earth; logos, a discourse.) The science 

which treats of the mineral constituents of the earth, their 

formation, position, and direction. 
Germination, {germen, a seed.) The growth of a seed; air, 

warmth, and moisture must be present to cause the growth. 
Granite, (gramnn, a grain.) A piimitive rock, so named 

from its being apparently composed of small pieces or 

granules. 
Horizon, (Gr. orizon, to bound.) The boundary of vision, or 

where the earth and sky seem to meet. 
IToRTicuLTURE, (Gr. ortus, an inclosure.) The cultivation of 

a garden. 
Humus, [Jmnius, soil.) The black substance in the soil formed 

from animal and vegetable remains ; hence, called organic 

matter. 
Ignore, {ignosco, to be ignorant of.) To pass by without 

noticing, as if the person or thing had no existence. 
Impregnated. The virtues of one thing infused into another; 

as the pollen of the flower is infused into the pistil. 
Infallible. Entirely exempt from mistake or failure. 
Influence, (influere, to flow into.) A power whoso operations 

are invisible; to be judged only by its effects. 
Irrigation, (ir, into; rigare, to water.) The operation of 

causing water to flow in distributing channels over the 

field to nourish plants. 
Lucid, [lux, light.) Made clear to the mind. 
Manufacture, {manus, the hand; factum, made.) Made by 

hand. [It is now applied to the making of cloth and wares 

of all kinds which are produced by machinery from the raw 

material. ] 



VOCABULARY.- 177 

Manure, {•mamts, the hand; Fr. iire, over.) Worked over by 
hand. It was originally aoulied to land made fertile by 
being worked by manual labor, but it is now used as a name 
for any substance, whether of animal, yeiretable, or mineral 
origin, which has the effect of making the land fertile. 

Maturity, (maturus, ripe.) The completion of growth in 
plants to ripeness. Applied to a promissory note, it is the 
date when it is due, or the time when the maker promised 
to pay. 

Mariner's Compass. An instrument used for directing the 
course of a ship at sea, and consists of a card marked 
with 33 points of direction, fixed to a magnetic needle, 
which always points to the North, the variations excepted. 
The needle, with the card attached, is supported on the fine 
point of a pin, and is arranged so as to remain in a hori- 
zontal position, independent of the tossing or rolling of the 
ship. 

Maximum, (superlative of magnus, great.) The greatest abun- 
dance. 

Membrane. A thin, translucent skin. 

Microscope, {micros, small; scopco, to view.) An instrument 
used to examine very minute things. 

Minimum, (superlative of parvus, small.) The least quantity 
possible. 

Moisture. "Water scattered or diffused as a mist. 

Moulb-board. That part of a plow which receives the soil 
or mould from the share, and, by its construction, raises, 
turns, and deposits it at an angle of 45 degrees, because 
by that angle the greatest amount of surface is exposed to 
the sun and air. This part of the plow is so named because 
it was continued to be made of wood long after the coulter 
and share were made of iron or steel; and, although it is 
now universally made of steel, it yet retains its ancient 
name as a relic of the primitive methods of agriculture. 

Neutralize, (neuter, neither; ize, to make ) To render inactive 
the peculiar property of any substance. 

Oil-cake. A cake formed by the immense pressure of certain 
kinds of seeds for forcing out the oil contained in them — 
usually linseed, rape, and cotton seed. 

Organic, {orgati07i, n member.) Belonging to a member; any 
substance wliieh formed the soft part of a plant or animal ; 
it includes all the substances found in a plant except the 
mineral. 

Ovule, {ovum, an egg; ule, little.) A minute egg or germ. 

Papilionaceous, {papilio, a butterfly.) A family of plants 
whose flowers are shaped like the wings of a butterfly, as 
those of the pea, bean, and clover. 



IT'S ■ VOCABULARY. 

Pistil. The organ of a flower wliicli contains the ovule. It is 
so named from its resemblance to the pestle of the apothe- 
cary. 

Per Cent. For or by the hundred. The term is used for its con- 
venience in expressing a ratio; thus, 5 i)cr cent, represents 
5 for a liundrijd, 10 per cent. 10 for a hundred ; at 5 per 
cent. 50 would give 2.^, because if 100 gave 5, 50, being the 
half of a 100, it gives' the half of 5, or 2J. 

Perfuxctory. Careless ; in a slovenly manner. 

Precede, {pre, before; cedere, to walk.) To go before; r.s 
clover should precede wheat. 

Precipitating, (pre, before; caput, the head.) Rushing liead- 
long. [It refers to the descending of a substance which has 
been mechanically mixed or chemically united, sueli r.s 
takes place with moisture in a crowded room; the air, 
being warm, holds much mo'sture in diffusion, which, u])()n 
the admission of cold air, is quickly condensed and precipi- 
tated ; or, wlien a piece of metal is held in solution in a 
strong acid, by the application of another substance which 
neutralizes the acid, the metal is precipitated to the bottom 
of the vessel.] 

Principal, {princeps, the chief.) The first in rank. 

Principle. The operative cause; an admitted truth; equivalent 
to the term axiom in mathematics. 

Progressive, {pro, forward; gressus, walked.) Advancement 
step by step ; a continued work, in contradistinction to an 
act or deed performed at once. 

Promotes, {pro, forward ; movere, to move. ) Moves forward ; 
that which encourages or advances. 

Proportionate, (/)ro, for ; /JoWto, a share; ate, to make.) Share 
for or equal to share; that which is adjusted to something 
else according to a fixed rate. 

Protoplasm, (Gr. protos, first; plasma, shape.) First form or 
shape; a jelly-like matter, generally considered tlie life 
substance of the plant, and found in all living plants. 

Pulverize, {pxdvus, dust; ize, to make.) To reduce hard sub- 
stances to powder. 

Pungent, {piing er e, io ?,i\n^.) That which affects the tongue 
or eyes, as if })ierced with sharp points, siich as is produced 
by acid or ammoniacal salts. 

Resistance, {resistere, to withstand.) That power o[ a body to 
withstand force. 

Ruminate, (rwmt/irtre, to rej)eat.) The i)rocess of masticating 
by such animals as cattle, sheep, deer, etc., whereby the 
grass and herbage wliioh was swallowed whih^ grazing, 
having imdcrgone a cooking process in the first stomach, is 
brought back to the mouth and thoroughly masticated. To 
cook food for ruiniiuiting animals is now considered by 
many persons to be a superfluous work. 



VOCABULAKY, 179 

Scientific, (scienlio, knowledge.) Knowledge established on 

the principles of evidence. 
Slake, (Sax. sleac, to quench.) To pour water on lime; making 

a hydrate of lime slakes it. 
Stagnate, {stagnare, to become motionless.) To cease to flow, 

as water in a slough or pond. 
Stamen. A thread ; the organ of a flower which produces the 

pollen, and consists of the filament and anther. 
.Starch, (Sax. stark, stiff or strong.) The farina of various 

plants ; insohible in cold water; but when boiling water is 

])oured over it, makes a viscid substance used to stiffen 

linens, etc. 
Stimulant, {stimulus, a goad or instrument used in driving 

cattle. ) In agriculture it is a name applied to substances 

put in the soil to make it yield, but which add no plant 

food. 
Stratum, (jjZ. strata.) A layer or seam, as a layer of rock, 

a seam of coal. 
Temperature. The state of the earth, air, or any body, as to 

its heat or cold, indicated by a thermometer. 
Thermometer, (Gr. thermos, heat; metron, a measure.) An 

instrument by which the heat or temperature is measured, 

which is designated by degrees. 
Torrent, (torrere, to burn.) Violent action; as a great rush of 

water down a steep declivity. 
Transported, [trans, beyond; portare, to carry.) Carried 

away, as soils are carried away by floods from the rocks 

from which they had crumbled. 
Vegetable, (vegere, to grow.) Any and every plant which 

grows; commonly used, however, to designate plants 

grown in the garden for culinary purposes. 
Vigorous, {vigor, energy of life.) Activity in the growth of 

plants, or spirited and energetic activity of animals. 
Viz., (contraction of videlicet.) The equivalent of to tvit; 

namely. 
Volatile, {volare, to fly.) Any substance which readily 

escapes or flies away, as ammonia or the non-essential oils. 



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